Brown on Green
by BuryTheHatchet
Summary: They parted at an airport three years ago. Now she is living in London, content if not entirely happy. Abby would say that it is fate that the dead sailor walked into the bookshop and brought a book, not that Abby will ever find out. Look at the rest of my stories and guess the pairing. Or you could just look at the characters involved. That would probably be easier.
1. Brown on Green

**This will have two parts. I do not know when the second half will be up, but it is just being finalised. This was actually just supposed to be Tony and Ziva bumping into one another at an airport. Alas, dear reader, it became something entirely different. Although, there is a scene at the airport.**

Brown on Green

"Daddy!" The toddler ran over, stumbling slightly but regaining his balance as he wrapped his chubby arms around the man's leg. "Home!"

"Yeah, I'm home." He picked the child up and ruffled his dark curly hair. The boy had the same skin tone as his mother, along with her nose and eye shape, but he had none of his father's physical features. His eyes were green, not blue, and he had such a wide grin unlike his father's small, shy smile. And he knew the child wasn't his, not biologically, at least. He had met the boy's mother when the child was a week and a half old. Fallen head-over-heels in love with both mother and son immediately. Of course, he had been rejected by her 43 times before she finally accepted an offer of dinner, sometimes with a polite excuse about not being able to find a babysitter, and sometimes with a plain refusal. He knew her heart and child belonged to someone else, but she had never spoken of the man to him, or little Anton. "How's my big boy today?"

"We feed the duckys!" He giggled, playing with his father's tie as the man looked over at the woman at the end of the entrance hall, a sad expression on her face. It was the same expression she wore whenever the boy said 'ducky' or whenever she saw titles by Thom E. Gemcity. The same expression she wore when he had brought Anton a wooden boat toy or suggested they spend a day eating pizza and watching movies. It was always gone in milliseconds of it appearing, but he could see it there, the faintest flicker when they saw a Mustang go past. He had first seen it when they passed someone with dyed black hair and leather and chains. He had asked her why the 'Emo girl' had upset her so much, but she had just snapped and said that there was nothing wrong about being dressed differently, and for all he knew, she could have been the happiest, sweetest girl in the world. He had, over the two years that he had known her, passed it off as another one of her quirks, like the mistakes she made in speech or the way she flipped out when she was snuck up on. She smiled at him and walked over, pressing her lips softly to his.

"How was work?"

"I had an American fed come in today, ask about some guy who bought a book last week. I barely even remember selling it to the guy." Her ears had pricked up when he mentioned the American. "Persistent. Kept wanting to know every little detail about how he acted. Apparently the guy was Navy. The guy who bought the book, I mean. The guy interrogating me was definitely not Navy."

"NCIS?"

"NIC something or other, yeah, how'd you know?" He frowned at the woman across from him. He knew little to nothing about her past. She was from Israel, she spent some time in America. She had a son. Nothing more. She was always so guarded about anything personal and he had always tried to respect that, however hard he found it. It is of course difficult proposing to a woman 15 times and each time not knowing why she won't accept. He knew she kept guns. He had stumbled across one on his first week living with them. He trusted her when she said she was licenced, but not when she said there were only two of them in the house. He knew there were more, along with many stashed knives. Every room was defendable, an armoury ready for battle. He also trusted her when she said they were only for self defence, to keep her safe, although he wasn't certain what she needed to be kept safe from that needed so many weapons. Especially not in the middle of Kensington. When he had asked her how she could afford to live in such an expensive part of London, she had replied with 'I have a contact.' He didn't know what she had meant by that, but with Ziva the cryptic clues often led nowhere fast.

"Time in America." She shrugged it off. "Did he say why he was looking for the Navy guy?"

"He said he was found dead. Had the receipt to my shop in his pocket, but the ink had faded. Some lab tech had managed to get the address but not what he brought." He narrowed his eyes at her and followed her into the living room, still carrying Anton in his arms.

"Murdered?"

"He didn't say."

"No, he would not have. Not if he did not think your reaction would matter." She looked up at him and smiled, taking the child from his arms and kissing the top of his head. "Are you going to show Daddy the picture you drew today?"

"Yes! Yes!" She placed him down and he ran off.

"What are you not telling me, Ziva?"

"I do not know what you mean." She shrugged and turned away, picking up a mug and moving to take it into the kitchen.

"Ziva…" He gripped her wrist and she whipped around to glare at him, her eyes full of fire.

"Remove your hand or I will break it." The threat was quiet but deadly and he retracted his hand immediately. He had learnt early on that she didn't like to be touched without permission. Particularly her hair. She never let him touch her hair. "Sorry." She looked up at him apologetically. "I just…I knew some people from NCIS. A long time ago." She smiled and stroked his cheek. "I was just caught up in some old memories, that is all. It will not happen again."

"I wish you would just talk to me, Ziva. I love you, and you don't talk to me and it hurts."

"Daniel. Please. Stop saying you love me. I do not deserve your love, nor can I fully reciprocate it." She turned away again and this time he allowed her to go to the kitchen. It was the same thing she said every time he told her he loved her, every morning when they woke up, every night before the went to bed together, every chance possible in between. And every time she said it he knew she meant it, but he couldn't help himself. He was like a lost puppy, trailing around after her.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry him?" He offered for the third time as they walked down the road, a common Friday morning ritual.

"He is fine." She shook her head and smiled at him, the hand that wasn't holding Anton sliding into his. She had carried heavier loads, and Anton was not a particularly big child.

"Ima, I walk." He pouted. She had already placed him down twice to let him walk on his own that morning, each time having to pick him up again after three minutes.

"Baby, we have been through this already." She kissed his cheek. "Ima cannot keep picking you up and putting you down. You have to choose." Of course, Ziva could keep picking him up and putting him down, physically she was still as fit and in shape as she was when she had left NCIS. More so, even. But the weekly routine of his continual rollercoaster of indecision was driving her insane for once.

"Walk." He pouted and tried to look stubborn, only succeeding in looking more like his father, his real father, than at that moment she could handle properly. She closed her eyes and tried to count to one hundred, being stopped at thirty-seven. "Ima."

"What?" She sighed and opened her eyes to her son.

"You're squeezing."

"Sorry, Baby. Ima is tired." She looked at her child's frightened eyes and then to Daniel's worried expression. She kissed Anton's cheek and stroked back his hair to look into his emerald green eyes and smiled softly, placing him on the path and taking hold of his hand. They walked on past a total of four houses before he started to whimper again and she picked him up, reminding her of someone else who complained about walking long distances. They walked on up until the little antique bookshop, where they stopped and Ziva kissed Daniel, leaving with the promise of coffee.

* * *

Ziva returned with the two disposable cups of coffee in one hand and Anton in the other. She watched as Daniel spoke to a customer at the checkout from across the empty street and smiled. She didn't love him, but she definitely liked him. He eased the pain of not being around Tony. He made life with Anton easier too. And he was not bad in bed, either, which made their arrangement something that her neighbour frowned upon. They had met in his bookshop when she had been looking around London for the first time since her mission there before NCIS. He had asked her out, she had said no. So he offered to walk her home, saying that he was closing up for the day anyway. She had declined. He had insisted. He had made her dinner. Italian of all things. But he had managed to make her laugh, something that hadn't happened in a while. She had taken him a cup of coffee the next day to thank him. And so every Friday she and Anton would walk to the bookshop and bring him a coffee. Her neighbour, a woman with two children and more money than sense, had asked her about the man who kept visiting, just to make sure he was safe around her children, of course, and had immediately looked down upon her for being a single mother. That was the first time she had met her neighbour, a bitter conversation outside, late at night when Ziva was waving goodbye to Daniel after another dinner. The first time he had stayed the night was, in a way, retaliation to her neighbour. It had also been out of simple loneliness. Ziva hadn't made a single friend in her time in London when she was on her mission, and in the four months she had been there with Anton, again not one – apart from him. And she missed Tony. The nine months she had been in Israel had been hard, but she had been pregnant and had no reminder of Tony but the life growing inside her. When Anton was born, everything he did reminded her of him.

She looked back up at the glass window of the shop front. The customer was still there and looking less like a customer now. Daniel liked to talk, yes, but not usually this much. Not on a Friday when there was coffee waiting. She took a step forwards and stopped dead in her tracks when the not-customer turned around. The coffee fell to the ground as a pair of emerald eyes, just like those of her son, locked onto her chocolate brown ones. She was frozen, unable to breathe as he stared at her and she stared back. He looked older, tired. He tilted his head and frowned, not believing what he was seeing. The child in her arms wailed as a car rounded the corner and slammed on the brakes, stopping only a yard short of them and knocking her out of her daze. She apologised and stepped back up the kerb, trying to calm her baby down.

He stepped out of the shop and started to walk over to her, but she was already running down the street, coffee left spilled on the road and the child still crying in her arms. He chased her round a corner and through a crowd of people, his only reference the child's crying and the backpack identical to his own. He reached the gate to a park and ground to a halt as he lost her, his eyes flickering frantically across groups of people enjoying the sun.

"Ima! Ima! Ducky!"

He spun round to the source of the voice, a child – the child she had been holding – was throwing pieces of bread into the duck-pond. The little boy turned to face the woman beside him and, as Tony drew nearer, reached up and touched his mother's cheek.

"Ima, why you cry?"

"Because I am sad, Baby." Her voice cracked and Tony's heart shattered into a thousand pieces as he sat on a park bench behind them. He felt like he was intruding but he couldn't help it. It was Ziva.

"Ima hurt?"

"Yes, Baby. Ima hurts, too."

"Why?"

"Because you are too young to understand what is going to happen and I have no way of protecting you from it."

"I a big boy, Ima. Daddy say so. He say 'Anton a big boy'." Tony's heart broke even more. She had a son. With someone else.

"Yes, Baby. You are Ima's big boy. But you are still not big enough to understand this." The child plonked himself down on her lap so Tony's view of him was obscured by Ziva.

"Ima?"

"Yes, Anton?"

"Who the man in bookswop?"

"That was your daddy."

"No. Other man." Ziva turned her head and looked straight at him again.

"His name was Daniel." She whispered, so her son couldn't hear her. But Tony could lip-read. And he was used to her riddles, he could understand them. He'd had a son, and he never knew about him. But his heart melted when the realisation finally hit him. He had a son. A little tiny child, a hybrid of him and Ziva. 'Come meet him.' She mouthed. He stood up and walked over, sitting next to them on the grass by the water. The boy shied away from the man who had been chasing him and his Ima and Tony tried not to let the pain at the movement show. "Anton, Baby, it is okay. He is Ima's friend."

"We run now Ima. He bad." The boy clambered to his feet and started tugging on her hand. "Ima! Run!" He pleaded with her.

"Tony is my friend, Anton. He will not hurt us. Come here, Baby. Tony keeps people safe." She opened her arms and he toddled into them, keeping as far away from the strange man as possible.

"Hi. I'm Tony." He smiled his 100 watt smile and waved at the little boy. When he sank further back, Tony pulled out his badge and handed it over. "That means I protect people. Just like your Ima used to."

"Ima not got one." He shook his head and inspected the gold and leather that he held in his chubby fingers.

"She used to. She used to have it to help protect people when she lived in America."

"Ima live England. London. She no live in 'Mewica!" He started crying again and Ziva let him curl up on her lap, gently rocking him back and forth.

"Have you told him about NCIS? About any of us?"

"No." She looked down, ashamed. "Daniel knows I spent time in America. That is all."

"He looks like you."

"No. No, he looks like his father. Acts like his father too." She shook her head and looked down to see he son had fallen asleep with the gentle rocking motion. "He has green eyes."

" _Daniel_ has blue eyes."

"He also has his father's smile."

"I don't know what _Daniel_ 's smile looks like."

"Nothing like yours." She sighed and played with Anton's hand.

"Does _Daniel_ know that he's mine?"

"He knows he is not his. We met after Anton was born."

"Oh. _Daddy_?"

"I do not really know how that started. He had started talking and I think the neighbour's children were playing with their father in the garden whilst we were in our garden playing and…he just said it and Daniel looked so happy and I could not…I could not correct him without telling him and I just…" She took a shaky breath to calm herself down.

"You didn't want him to know about me." He couldn't help the hurt in his voice.

"I wanted him to have a normal life. And a life with Anthony DiNozzo is far from normal." She teased gently.

"That's rich, coming from you, David." He looked down at the child in her arms. "Anton?"

"He looked so much like you, I could not think of any other name." She leant her head on his shoulder, such a familiar action.

"Will _Daniel_ not worry where you are? You took off at quite a speed."

"Stop saying his name like that." She admonished. "He will work out that I am here soon enough. I bring Anton here every day." She smiled. "He likes the duckys."

"I like our Ducky." Tony smiled. "He misses you. They all do."

"Do you?"

"Of course I do. Ziva, I should have made you come home with me from Israel. Biggest mistake of my life was getting onto that plane alone." He placed his hand on the small of her back and pressed his lips to her temple.

"It was what I wanted."

"You regret that?"

"Sometimes. I miss Anton not knowing you. I miss him not having his actual father around."

"So, I'm not good enough?" They both turned round to stare at Daniel. "I knew you didn't love me and I accepted that, but Anton does. And I have been the only father he has ever known."

"Daniel. How long have you been there?"

"Since about 'His name is Daniel'. It really is good to know that you care." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Daniel, please…" Ziva sighed. "Tony, take Anton." She lifted the child into his arms and he floundered momentarily before awkwardly managing to cradle the child gently.

"I don't want my son in the arms of some guy who just rolls up and claims to be his father."

"Daniel, not here." She had never seen him get so worked up. Yes, he had a temper, but so did she, and if they fought it was usually over quickly. But never had he lost his temper away from home. "He is not your son. He is Tony's son."

"Oh, yeah? So where was _Tony_ when he was up all night with a temperature the other month? Who was there when he was teething? Who was there to take him to the zoo, or to feed him on the nights where you were so tired? Because the way I remember it, it was me."

"I know. But I always told you that I did not need you to. You always did it without me asking, you volunteered."

"Anton doesn't know Tony!"

"He should though. He has a right to."

"And what happens when he goes back to America?!" It was a question that had occurred to her, but she had put it to the back of her mind. She didn't want to have to think about it.

"I do not know."

"No. Because you know that he will disappear back to America as soon as he's done working here, if that's even what he's really doing and he's not just following you."

"Daniel, not now. We can talk about this at home, but people are staring."

"I don't care that people are staring. He is my son."

"Not biologically, or legally." She bit her lip.

"Er, Ziva?"

"What, Tony?" She spun round to stare at him and their son, crying. "Oh, Baby. I am sorry. Ima should not have been shouting." She picked the child up and buried her face in his hair. "We are going home, Baby. It is okay, the shouting will stop." She looked to Tony apologetically. "I am sorry, this is…"

"Hey, rule six. Sign of weakness." He held her chin and looked into her chocolate eyes sadly. "I need to go back to the hotel and give Gibbs an update, anyway."

"Can you not, uh…"

"It's fine. I won't tell them I even saw you." He leant in to kiss her cheek, noticing Daniel's scowl and thinking better of it. "I'll, uh, see you around sometime, maybe." He reached up and tousled her hair, then tousled his son's hair before nodding and walking away from the park. He kept telling himself as he walked away that it was the second biggest mistake of his life, walking away. But he was wrong, and he knew it. Leaving her in Israel was the second biggest mistake of his life. This was the biggest mistake. He wasn't just leaving Ziva, the woman he loved. He was leaving his son this time too. He took his time walking aimlessly through London, not knowing where he was going. His hotel was in the other direction, but he couldn't care. He'd just left his son. He'd done exactly what he had promised himself he would never do. He'd abandoned his child.

* * *

"You're late, DiNozzo. I expected your call two hours ago." Gibbs' face appeared on the screen of Tony's laptop.

"Boss, I was a little busy."

"Better be good, DiNozzo."

"No, Boss. Didn't get any new information."

"What about the bookshop guy?"

"Ha. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, um, no. Nothing. Sorry, Boss." He ran a hand through his hair. He hated lying to Gibbs.

"Something you want to mention?"

"No. Just slightly jet lagged. I'm gonna go get some sleep. I'll get back on it tomorrow."

"Stay safe out there. If you need anything, even if just to talk, you know where to find me."

"You know something, Boss?"

"'Bout what?"

"London, maybe?"

"No." Gibbs frowned. "Should I?"

"No. I'll check in tomorrow." He closed the lid to the laptop and sat down on the bed. He knew that as soon as the case was over he had no more business being in England and he would have to go back home. But he couldn't. Not after discovering that he had a child. What man could? He kept picturing her chocolate eyes and his son's emerald eyes. He didn't even know how to find them again, didn't even get an address. There was always the duck pond. She had said that they went to the duck pond every day. He picked his phone up and walked back out of the hotel room, navigating his way back to the park and the duck pond.

* * *

"Do you love him? Is he the reason you won't marry me?"

"Daniel, I am not talking about this until we are inside and Anton is out of earshot." Ziva said as she unlocked the front door to their house and stepped in.

"We are inside. Now we talk!"

"Daddy! No shouting!" Anton wailed, clamping his hands over his ears. Ziva sighed and bounced him in her arms.

"Hush, hush, Baby. There is not going to be any more shouting. No more shouting." She soothed quietly, carrying him into the playroom and placing him down. "Baby, can you be a good boy and play with your toys? Ima and Daddy have to talk."

"No shouting?"

"We will try." She kissed his forehead.

"About Tony?"

"What do you mean?"

"Daddy shouting about Tony?" Ziva sighed at his innocent question.

"Something like that, Baby."

"Tony bad?"

"No. Tony is not bad. Tony is a very, very good man." She stood up and smiled at her son before walking out of the playroom and through to the kitchen where Daniel was waiting for her.

"Who is he?"

"He is an NCIS agent." She looked down, ashamed, although she did not know why.

"Yeah, I got that. Who is he to you?"

"He is…Tony." She shrugged. There was no other way to put it. He was Tony. Her best friend, the man she loved, the father of her son. Daniel was expecting something more than 'he is Tony'. "We worked together for around eight years. He was…everything to me." Her voice was quite. Never had she told anyone this. Never had she confessed her feelings for him, not out loud. "He was my best friend, my colleague, my partner. I love him."

"Love? Present tense?" He was growing ireful. She hadn't once in their time living together seen him so mad.

"Yes. I would do anything for him."

"And what makes you think he'd do anything for you?"

"He already has. He left me in Israel." Tears overspilled as she remembered their last moments together, stood on the tarmac at the airport. "And if he was given the chance he would love Anton."

"How do you propose giving him the chance though? Taking my son away from his home, from me, from his country? That doesn't seem fair."

"Has anyone told you that life is not fair, Daniel? You grew up in this area with a mother and father who both loved you. You had an expensive education and an easy life. I was the first person to say no to you. My life was not that simple. I grew up in a country where my sister was killed, my mother was killed and my father only cared for me as my uses as an assassin. Yes, Tony had a well funded upbringing, so did I, but neither of us had love. So when we find someone to love we do anything for them." She turned away after her outburst.

"Assassin?" He choked on the word.

"Yes, assassin. Federal agent. I have had many rolls working for the Israeli and American governments." This was all she needed, to give him a history lesson in government agencies and her ties to them. "You are a good man, Daniel. You have been there for me when I needed you, and you have been there for Anton. But you knew. You knew that biologically he is not your son and that there was always a chance that I would tell him who his father really is."

"You never said that."

"But deep down you knew it, I know you did." She shrugged. "I told you that I could never marry you because I have never loved you. My heart belongs to Tony and it always will."

"What if he does something to betray that?"

"It has happened before. My heart will still be his." She remembered Jeanne, remembered the heartbreak she went through with the frog case.

"So what you're saying is that everything I have done for you and your son means nothing?" He laughed humourlessly.

"That is not what I am saying. Look, I do not even know if Tony will want to get to know Anton. But if he does then I will do anything to make that possible. I want my son to know where he comes from. It is important."

"I'm your backup plan then." He shook his head and walked away.

"Where are you going? We are not done talking."

"I think we are." He stormed upstairs and grabbed a bag, stuffing clothes into it. "If I am your backup plan, I'm not gonna stick around. I'm fine with me being _your_ second choice, but not Anton's second best."

"And how am I going to explain this to him?!"

"Tell him I've given up coping with your heartlessness!" He ran back down the stairs and out of the door.

"You are not even going to say goodbye?" She stood in the doorway. He whirled on her.

"You know, I really loved you. Just because I grew up in all the comfort that I did, doesn't mean that I don't know what it means to love unconditionally, to do anything for you. But I just can't anymore." He shrugged and walked away. She slammed her fist against the wall and sank to the floor, her back against the doorframe.

"Ima? Ima, where Daddy go?!" Anton shrieked, his face red with tears as he pointed in the direction that Daniel had just taken.

"I do not know, Baby. Ima does not know." She held her arms open for him to walk into and curled up on her lap, his cries of distress attracting attention from families all down the street. But she didn't care, because she was well aware that she may have just ruined her child's life.

* * *

"Daddy! Want Daddy!" Ziva walked Anton around his bedroom. It was painted red, the same red as Magnum's Ferrari. He had been screaming since Daniel had left. He had screamed through dinner and through bath-time. He hadn't stopped with anything she tried and at 0100 Ziva was at her wits end.

"I know you do, Baby. I know. But you cannot have Daddy." He cried harder. "How about we go to see the duckys?" This settled him down a bit and she sighed. "Right, let us go see the duckys." She walked down the stairs and placed him on the sofa whilst she retrieved his pushchair from the cupboard under the stairs and pulled her boots on. It was summer and the nights were warm enough not to worry about jackets, but she placed his blue blanket in the pushchair after strapping him in. Normally she would carry him to the park, it wasn't far away, but after trying to get him to sleep from six o'clock, she wasn't going to hold him the whole way there and the whole way back. He calmed some with the motion of the pushchair as she walked and by the time they reached the park he was just whimpering softly. Her senses heightened immediately when she saw a dark figure sat on the bench next to the pond. She instinctively reached for the knife concealed at her waist, an old habit that she wasn't prepared to stop.

Tony whipped round when he heard the soft cooing of the child and his green eyes locked on a pair of brown ones. Her face was pale in the moonlight and he wondered if he was dreaming, if he had fallen asleep on the park bench. But her confused frown convinced him otherwise. "Ziva? What's wrong?"

"I could not get Anton to sleep." She walked over.

"Daddy gone!" He started to tear up again and she unbuckled him, picking him up and holding him tightly, pressing soft kisses to his damp cheeks.

"Ziva, what happened?" Tony guided her to the bench and made her sit down.

"Daniel. He walked out."

"Ziva…I'm sorry. It's my fault, isn't it? I shouldn't have…I shouldn't have…"

"It was going to happen sooner or later. I think in the end he was only staying for Anton. He knew that I had and never would love him." She sat facing the water with their son on her lap, pressing her lips to the top of his head. "I said things which I should not have said to him. He was good to Anton. He really cared."

"You're not gonna be kicked out of your house or anything because of this are you?"

"No. No, I own the house. It was part of my father's network of safe houses across the world. I knew that England would be a good place to raise a child – it gave us a quite life. I moved the week he was born. Easy when you do not have many possessions." She explained in response to his worried tone. "Do not worry. My father left a reasonable amount of money beavered away around the world."

"Squirrel."

"Where?"

"No. He had money squirreled away. There are no beavers."

"Of course there are beavers, Tony. I have seen beavers."

"No, I mean…Squirreled, beavered, it doesn't matter. So long as you are okay?"

"I am fine."

"He didn't…hurt you or anything, physically I mean?" He started running his hands down her arms.

"Tony, I am fine. Daniel may have a temper, but he would never have laid a hand on either me or Anton." She smiled reassuringly. "What are you doing out here?"

"I didn't know how to find you again and you said you came here every day, so I thought I might come out and wait for you. I wanted to see you again." He tilted her chin towards him with two fingers and smiled. "You haven't changed a bit."

"You are wrong with that. I have changed a lot." She looked down at the child on her lap and her brow furrowed. "I am no longer a ruthless killer."

"You weren't a ruthless killer when I left you. Don't put yourself down." He nudged her shoulder with his. They sat in silence for a long time until Anton finally started to drift off, after having shifted in her arms so he had his head resting on her chest and he was facing Tony. "What happens now?"

"I do not know. When do you go back home?"

"When the job's done. Case seems like it's wrapping up, I'm just looking for a couple of witnesses. Few more days, week max." He looked up to the moon. "I can see how long I can prolong it, find an excuse about flights or something, if that's what you want of course."

"I only want what is best for Anton." She breathed slowly. She could tell him she wanted to be wherever he was, she would follow him anywhere, but if he didn't want that then he probably wouldn't be too thrilled with her confession. And if he wasn't happy with her confession then he wouldn't be wanting to stick around for Anton, if that was even what he wanted anyway.

"Right. He needs a life of stability, not just a father who pops in every so often when I can." He nodded and looked at his son, sleeping peacefully in the woman he loves' arms.

"He also needs a father who will love him. It is better to have a father whom he sees some of the time than none at all."

"I can try and arrange visits. At least two a year. It'll be hard not telling the others but I think it could be done."

"Or we…" She paused and shook her head. She loved him. Still. And she couldn't face the idea of him having moved on without her. "No. Stupid idea." The water of the pond was completely flat and acted like a mirror, reflecting the clear night sky perfectly. She'd had the crazy idea that they could move back to America, that they could be a family together. But what if he had moved on? What if he didn't harbour the same feelings as she did? She couldn't face uprooting her new life to go back and suffer seeing him with another woman.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just want him to know his father, that is all." She smiled at him.

"I want to get to know him, too. Hey, I'll wrap this case up and then how about I take you two out somewhere. The zoo maybe. Ooh, I love the zoo."

"I would like that, Tony." She leaned her head on his shoulder and watched as the sky started to lighten.

"Hey, give me your phone number and I'll call you when I'm done." He wrapped his arm around her, frowning when she didn't respond. He looked down at her to see she was fast asleep, still holding onto Anton. He carefully lifted his son out of her arms so as to make sure he did not fall if she let go of him and settled down to sit comfortable and watch the sun rise.

* * *

"Ima?"

"Yes, Baby?" She knew what was coming next. They had had the same conversation every few hours for the past three days, since they had returned home from their night at the park.

"Where Daddy?"

"Daddy is gone, Baby?"

"Bookswop?"

"I do not know, Baby."

"Look there?"

"No Baby. We are not going to look there."

"Why?"

"Because Daddy does not want to see us anymore."

"Why?" This was the part that she hated.

"Because…" How did you explain that the man he had called 'Daddy' was not really his daddy? "Baby, you remember Tony?"

"He not bad?"

"Tony is not bad, no." She smiled proudly at him. "Tony is a very special man."

"Why?" Yes, Ziva. Why is Tony a very special man?

"Because he is your father."

"Farder?"

"Daddy."

"No. Ima wrong!"

"Baby, trust me. Ima is not wrong." She sighed at the confusion and upset on his face. He was too young to understand it. But then, he would always be too young to understand it, in a way. The pain her son was feeling over this broke her heart. She hated seeing her child in so much distress. Just then the phone rang and she picked it up, smiling when she heard Tony's voice.

"Zee-Vah? That you?"

"Yes, Tony. It is me."

"Why's Anton crying? What's wrong? Do you need help?"

"No. I have just told him for the twentieth time that you are his father and he refuses to believe it. He does not like the idea that Daniel is not coming home." She smiled at his panic over his son. It was good to hear that he cared so much.

"Stubborn like his mother. That's gonna be fun as he gets older." He chuckled. "So, case is over. I've asked boss for some time to sightsee, somehow managed to convince him it was a good idea and he's given me two days till I need to leave. Am I allowed to spend those two days with my son?"

"Of course." She leant back against the kitchen counter and breathed a small sigh of relief. He really wanted to make this work.

"I'll pick you up. Give me half an hour and your address. I'll catch a cab."

* * *

"Thank you, Tony." Ziva stood at the airport, Anton in the pushchair. "Thank you, for the weekend, and thank you for wanting to get to know him. It was good seeing you."

"Good seeing you too, Sweetcheeks." He gave her a flirtatious wink. "No, seriously. It was good seeing you. Both of you." He smiled and crouched down. "Hey, Bud. I have to go back to America, but I promise that I'll visit as soon as I can. Soon as Grandpa Gibbs gives me the time off, I'll jet right over here." He ruffled his son's dark hair. He hated goodbyes. "I'll try and call, but until then be a good boy for your Ima. She loves you very much." He kissed the child's forehead and smiled. "I love you so much. And you have a great smile." He tapped Anton's nose and they shared a classic DiNozzo grin, father and son. It was a genetic inevitability, Ziva supposed. How could a child of a DiNozzo not have such a good smile? Tony backhanded a tear before it could properly fall and he stood up. "I'll call when I can, but you know Gibbs and Abby and McGee. I rarely get time away from them."

"Of course." She smiled, putting on a brave face. He tilted her chin up with a thumb and looked into her eyes before slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I think I'll miss you most of all." His narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "What, Mr. Movie does not know _the Wizard of Oz_?" They both grinned.

"I'll miss both of you." He turned and started walking off.

"Tony!" He stopped and she took the two steps to join him before looking into his eyes when he turned around, searching for something. She wasn't certain what it was she was looking for, or if she found it, but she reached up and crushed her lips to his. She didn't know what possessed her to do it, but once she had started she couldn't stop, and as he joined the kiss she wrapped her arms around his neck and let the tears start to fall, letting them mingle with his on their cheeks. Their soft, gentle kiss lasted until they noticed a gathering audience. "I am sorry, I just…I could not let you go without doing that, just once…I am sorry."

"Don't be." He pressed his lips to hers quickly before pulling away. "I should have done that at the zoo." He backed away, giving a salute. "Hardest one-eighty of my life." And with that he was gone, disappearing off into the crowd.

 **Well, that was a lot of information for us to all process. Glad that is over. Oh, wait, no it is not. I forgot, the second act. Well, whilst you enjoy the interval, I should probably go and write act two.**

 **I am counting upon you guys to review, because even though I have a basic outline of where I want the second half to go, I basically scrapped it all and have had to start again.**

 **Oh, and I do know that there are no parks with duck ponds close to Kensington, apart from maybe Kensington Gardens, which has a closing time, but just work with me, okay.**

 **For my reference: 26** **th** **NCIS fic.**


	2. Family

**Wow, a lot of Daniel-hating. To be fair, I was not overly keen on him when I wrote him. However I do pity him slightly. But only very slightly. Like, I think I pity Jeanne more (In 'Bury Your Dead' and 'Internal Affairs'). No, wait. Maybe not, but it is very close. And on the whole 'Ziva could have dealt with it better' thing, sure she could have, but then A- I would not have a story, and B- I just cannot see Ziva running back to Tony for help. Not that it would have been 'running back to Tony for help' but I think she probably would have seen it in that way.**

 **But I did enjoy reading the reviews. They made me smile, which is always a good thing, and everyone seems to like Anton. I like Anton too. I wish he was real. I think, and this might be slightly difficult for everyone else to realise because the stories on here are only the tip of the iceberg of all my stories, but I think that he might be my favourite of all of the TIVA kids that I have imagined up.**

 **So, this took longer than I thought because I, after one of my bad days and a brief crisis of faith, deleted all of my writing off of my hard-drive. I know, it was a really, really dark day. But that meant that I had to try and salvage this from my illegible notes and my pretty pathetic memory, which means that it is not up to the quality that I would have liked. We are just lucky that I frequently back my hard-drive up, because otherwise the six works-in-progress that I actually like would have been lost forever. Anyway, just read it and you can decide whether I did a good job at putting this back together.**

 **Wow, long author's note. 317 words. Sorry.**

Family

"What do you think's going on with him Timmy?" Abby stood watching faces flicker through AFIS. "He's been distracted since he got back from England. Ooh, d'you think he met a girl?"

"He's Tony. He probably met tonnes of girls." Tim grumbled, working on a suspect's hard-drive.

"Timmy." She scolded. "I just want to know what's going on with him. There's no need to be cruel."

"Abs…" McGee sighed. "Why don't you talk to him about it if you're so interested?"

"I tried. He just joked about it."

"Again, he's Tony." McGee turned to her. "He's moving on. It's good for him."

"But what if…"

"She's not coming back, Abby. She's gone." Abby looked deflated, like she did every time the subject of Ziva came up.

"McGee, I have to get on with this. You're distracting me." She shooed him out of her lab and moving back into the recesses of the ballistics lab. She sank to the floor, uncertain of how many more times she could hear it before she broke.

* * *

He hung up the phone and unlocked the door to the men's room. Three weeks of one phone call back to England each day and he was dying. He wanted to be able to see Ziva. See his son. He slammed his fist against the wall before walking out of the restroom and marching through the bullpen. "Gibbs."

"Yeah, DiNozzo?"

"I need some time off. Now."

"Why?"

"Because I've gotta go see someone. Look, I can't explain right now, I just need to."

"No. I gave you two days off when you were in London."

"Boss!" Tony stared at the older man. He'd promised he wouldn't tell them. "Look, please. I just need a week. I…it's important."

"DiNozzo, no. We're in the middle of a case." Gibbs was furious that his senior field agent thought he could just take time off whenever he wanted, no regard for what was going on with the team.

"And this can't wait, Boss. This is important."

"What is 'This'?"

"I can't…" He shook his head and ran a hand over his face. "Just…let me…please."

"DiNozzo, if it is really that important, why can't you tell me?"

"Because I promised, and I'm not breaking another promise…not after everything… Look, trust me. If you were in my situation, you would be doing what I'm doing too. I'm doing the right thing, for once. I'll do all of my paperwork, and I'll never do anything wrong again. Just give me this, Boss." He pleaded with Gibbs, not caring that the rest of the team were watching. "Please, Gibbs. Let me do this one thing right."

"You've got four days." Gibbs turned back to his computer, leaving Tony stood there, staring dumbstruck at him. "DiNozzo! Go!"

* * *

Her mobile buzzed as the text came in. AIRPORT. 1300. T. She grinned. Three weeks of phone calls was killing her. She checked her watch. 1150. She had half an hour to get herself and Anton ready. She picked the little boy up and kissed his cheek. "We are going to go see Tony. Is that okay with you?"

"Tony good." He grinned and she laughed.

"Oh, yes. Tony is very good. Do you want lunch?"

"Naple."

"We do not have any more pineapple. Anyway, you did not like it when you tried it yesterday."

"Naple."

"No, Baby. How about some sandwiches?"

"Naple sandywiches."

Ziva sighed. It was going to be a very long day. "How about, no to pineapple and yes to cheese sandwiches?"

"No." He pouted, reminding her so much of Tony it almost hurt.

"Okay. No sensible lunch means no Tony." She sat him on a kitchen chair and crouched down in front of him.

"Daddy?" He frowned. She could tell he was still struggling to grasp the idea. She smiled proudly, stroking his cheek.

"Yes, Daddy."

He stuck his hand out and pointed it into her face. "Wuv?"

"You are too much like your father for your own good." She muttered. "And you talk to much for me to answer that question."

"Sandywich?"

"Sure, Baby." She smiled and stood up. "Like father like son."

* * *

"Daddy!" He ran as quickly as his little legs would carry him into his father's arms.

"Hey, Buddy." Tony picked Anton up, holding him close and kissing the top of his head.

"Stay!" His little fists pounded on his father's shoulders and Tony sighed. He looked over to Ziva and she blushed with embarrassment.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Nice to know I'm wanted." He opened the arm that wasn't holding Anton to allow her to step into it. He pulled her in and buried his face in her hair. "God, I've been wanting to do that since I got on that aeroplane the other week."

"You have?"

"Sure I have." He beamed. "Come on. I have four days to spend with my two favourite people." He kissed her temple. "What do you want to do today, little man?"

"Swim!" He started squirming in Tony's arms with the excitement.

"Oh, good idea Buddy. Means I get to see your Ima in a bikini again."

"No, it does not, My Little Hairy Butt. I have not worn a bikini since I was three months pregnant with him, and you will not get me back into one now." She took his bag off of him as he carried Anton and they started to walk out of the airport. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and never let go, but she knew that he would have to leave in four days. She wanted a repeat of the kiss they had shared when he left, but she knew he did not. If he did, he would have kissed her as soon as she walked over, wouldn't he? She wanted to place her hand in his, but instead she kept a safe distance away.

"Hey, you okay?" He stopped as they stood next to a taxi.

"Hmm?" She looked up at him. He was frowning at her.

"I was talking. I said that you could always look good in a bikini to me."

"Oh." She nodded and climbed into the black cab, leaving a confused Tony holding Anton.

"What's wrong with your Ima, Buddy? She seemed fine a few minutes ago." He shook his head and climbed in the other side.

* * *

"You looked good in your swimsuit. Even if it wasn't a two piece." Tony grinned as she tucked Anton into bed. "And you look good with our son, too."

"Lilah tov. Chalomot paz." She pressed her lips to her sleeping child's brown curls. "He is wiped up."

"Out. You wipe up a spill." He whispered and smiled, leaning against the doorframe to the bedroom. "Night, Bud. See you tomorrow." He walked over to his son and placed his hand on top of the little boy's head. "Ziva, you're…" He looked up, but she wasn't in the room. He stood and tried to find her. The yellow post-it was stuck to the banister of the stairs.

 _Tony,_

 _Thank you for today. Anton loved it._

 _I have gone to get ready for bed, you can let yourself out._

 _I will see you tomorrow._

 _Z._

His brow crinkled. He thought she would at least say goodnight, but then, she had been acting strangely since he had arrived. He gave one last check into Anton's room before hitting the light switch and closing the door to, sighing and walking down into the front hall. His bag was still there, sat beside the door and he glared at it as he sank down to sit on the bottom step. What was he doing? This was Ziva, and Anton. How could he keep leaving them? He opened the door, but couldn't bring himself to leave. He made his way into the kitchen and started searching through her cupboards. Did the woman not keep alcohol in the house any more? He just wanted a glass of whiskey.

"Tony? I thought you went to your hotel?" Ziva hissed at him from the hallway, a SIG held firmly by her side. She was wearing a pale blue mid-thigh length babydoll and Tony's mind automatically shifted to 'where does she keep her gun?'

"You got anything to drink?"

"Water. What are you still doing here?" She flushed scarlet as his eyes cast an appraising glance up and down her body.

"I couldn't leave without wishing you a goodnight." He shrugged. "What's with the, uh, nightwear?" He shifted uncomfortably.

"I have learnt that sleeping in the nude is not practical when you have a child who has a habit of waking during the night. And I like my freedom, yes?"

"Oh, I know that about you, Sweetcheeks." He chuckled. "Looks good on you." He walked over to her and smiled softly. One hand landed softly on her hip and the other tangled in her dark, curly locks as he brushed his lips against hers. They were as soft as he remembered from the kiss three weeks back. She moved one hand to sit on his chest and cupped his face with the other, her fingertips toying with his hair. He tasted just the way he had in Israel, warm and inviting as she reached up on her tiptoes to get closer to him. The hand in her hair moved so it was clasping the one that she had placed on his chest and he kept massaging her hip with the other. He moved her around so she was sandwiched firmly between his strong body and the doorframe.

"Tony…" She gasped as his lips broke away from hers and moved down to her collarbone. "Why did you not kiss me at the airport?"

"Because we were in the middle of an airport and I was holding Anton and once I was started I would not have stopped. I don't think anyone but us should be seeing what comes next." He picked her up bridal style and carried her upstairs to her bedroom, closing the door quietly behind them so as not to wake the child sleeping across the hall.

* * *

"I love you. So much." He pressed his lips to hers. "More than you could ever imagine."

"I do not know, Tony. I think I might just love you more." She buried her face into his shirt. "Do you have to go so soon?"

"Afraid so. Gibbs isn't overly happy with me at the moment." He hugged her tightly, not wanting to have to let her go. "You are the most important thing in the world to me, you know that."

"Tony?"

"Yeah?" He looked down at her face, the fear that filled it.

"Do you ever worry that you will not come home to us one day?"

"Oh, Ziva…" He wiped the tears away from her cheeks. "Every day. Every day, I worry that something will go wrong in the field and no-one will know to contact you." He sighed and pulled out his wallet. "I keep this hidden, but it's always on me." He passed the photo of the three of them to her. She flipped it over and, written on the back in Tony's scrawl was her phone number and the words 'tell them I'm sorry'. This made Ziva's tears flow faster. "Hey, I'll never need it. It's okay. I'll come home to you. I promise." He crouched down to the same height as Anton. "I gotta go away again, Buddy. Can you promise me something?"

"Depens." He looked at his father stubbornly.

"Promise me you'll keep her safe for me. Remind her that I love her every day. Remind her that I miss her and that if I haven't called, it's cause Grandpa Gibbs is in a bad mood. You got that?" The child nodded and pressed a sloppy kiss to Tony's nose. "Thanks, Buddy."

"Miss you."

"I know. I'll miss you too." He smiled and stood up, taking Ziva in one last time before he boarded the plane. "The one-eighty gets harder each time." He kissed the back of her hand and turned away, knowing that if he so much as glanced back he wouldn't be able to make himself get onto the plane.

* * *

She waited for him to walk over to her before crushing her lips against his. "How long?"

"72 hours, starting from now." He kissed her temple before bending down and picking Anton up. "How's my special little man?"

"Good. Kept pwomise."

"I'm glad you did. You're my big, brave boy."

"Duckys?"

"Baby, we saw the duckys this morning." Ziva sighed, looping her arm around Tony's waist as they started heading out of the airport.

"Daddy didn't."

"Then I think the first port of call is the park so we can go see the duckys." Tony beamed and maneuverer the child in his arms to sit on his shoulders. "Does he have a suit by any chance?"

"He is two, Tony. Of course he does not have a suit." Ziva whispered back in the same conspiratorial tone he had used.

"Well, you never know."

"Why does he need a suit?"

"Well, same reason I want to know if you have a white dress." He shrugged, leaving her stood in the main entrance to the airport, thoroughly confused.

"Did you just ask me to marry you?"

"Put simply, yes." He grinned. "So, what do you say?" He knelt down on one knee, Anton still perched on his shoulders, both wearing matching grins.

"Yes, Ima. Say yes!" Anton squealed with delight as Tony held a ring out.

"How can I resist such an offer, especially with two smiles like that?"

"You can't. Just say yes." Tony shrugged.

"Yes." She knelt down to be the same height as him and pressed her lips gently to his, knowing that not only their son but the whole airport was watching them. He slid the ring onto her finger and she smiled at it. "It is beautiful."

"I didn't think you would want anything to big." He smiled. He had spent a lifetime choosing the right one. It was a simple gold band with three diamonds set into it. "Was also surprisingly hard to get through security. They kept asking whether I had stolen it."

"It is perfect. Thank you, Tony." She smiled, not caring about the clapping, completely absorbed in Tony. Anton, however, was quite enjoying the attention his parents were getting, along with the attention he was getting. "How did you get him to say that?"

"Ah, well, after that first night last time I was here, I knew what I wanted, so when we were at the park I had a quiet word with him."

"When?" She looked up at her son, laughing his head of.

"Ice-cream!" He continued to laugh and pat Tony on the head.

"I was gone for two minutes to get those ice-creams."

"I can talk fast." Tony helped her stand up. "So, do you have a white dress?"

"No. Tony, when was the last time you saw me in a dress?"

"Does the dream I had last night count?"

"No." She shook her head. "Nor does the babydoll."

"Was it the time that you went on a date with my father, 'cause that was a good dress but a bad memory."

"It may well have been. I myself cannot remember." She smiled up at him. "When will the wedding be?"

"Well, I have a suit in my bag, and I think I know where I can buy you and Anton a dress and a suit." He smiled. "And I have a rabbi, a minister and a registrar on speed dial for whatever ceremony you want. It will be whenever you want." He kissed her again. "All issues with legal residencies and citizenship have been smoothed over, a few strings are being pulled. We just need to turn up. There really are some great perks that come with being a US federal agent."

"I love you." She smiled, pressing her lips to his before they climbed into the taxi.

* * *

"You look beautiful." He smiled as she walked over, the bodice of the simple white lace sundress hugged her torso perfectly, then fell loosely over her hips to be just above knee length. She held a bouquet of white roses with blue cornflowers and hydrangeas peaking out that matched the blue flowers in her hair. Anton stood next to Tony in a grey suit, matching his, with a little bowtie and waistcoat.

"You do not look so bad yourself, Mon Petit Pois." She smiled.

"Me Ima?"

"Yes, you look very handsome too, my little man." She looked proudly at her son. "My very handsome little boy."

"Our very handsome little boy." Tony kissed her cheek. "Have I told you today how much I love you?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Although it cannot hurt to say it again."

"Well, I love you to the end of the universe and beyond." He smiled and walked with her into the registrar's office.

* * *

"It was nice of your neighbour to take Anton for the night." Tony sighed as they lay entangled with the sheets on the bed.

"She owed me. I took her three kids for four hours the other day whilst she went to visit her sister in the hospital. The way I see it, that is twelve hours." Ziva pressed her lips to his bare skin. "And Anton is much better behaved."

"Well, I should hope so. I am a federal agent after all." He trailed kisses from her fingertips up to her shoulder and up her neck. "Hey, you ever think of having more kids one day?"

"Tony…" She sighed. Yes. Yes she had. But she didn't want to have to go through another pregnancy and birth alone. Particularly when she had Anton to look after as well. "We will talk about it in the morning. Tonight is all about you and me."

"I am, as you know, very happy with that idea." He winked as she pressed her lips to his, knowing that they only had five hours till the sun would rise, and that after that they would only have two more days together before he would be torn away from them again. With that thought he grew all the more determined. If this was all he could have, he was going to savour it, and memorise every last inch of her, because for all he knew they would never see each other again when he left except for the video calls he was staying up late for once a week.

* * *

They got to the airport early, just to give them more time to say goodbye. They stood, Anton sandwiched between them, silently embracing for what felt like hours. It was in reality only six and a half minutes, but when the child began to squirm Ziva knew it was time for a goodbye and she hated the idea that she would have to let her husband go. When it was just Tony, she had just about managed to say goodbye, but now they were married she couldn't seem to find the strength to remove her head from his chest. They never had spoken about having more children. Ziva's painfully small shake of the head when Tony tried to broach the subject had stopped him in his tracks and the look in her eyes had told him why her answer was no. It was because he wouldn't be there.

"Anton, Buddy, can I just put you down for a second? I just want to say goodbye to Ima." He nodded solemnly as he was lowered to the floor.

"I do not want you to leave, Tony." She shook her head and wrapped her arms tighter around him.

"If I could I would, Sweetcheeks. If I could I would. I would stay in a heartbeat."

"They why not? Just stay. Forget everyone in America." She pleaded, wishing she hadn't when she saw how torn his expression was. He loved NCIS. He loved his work, and he loved saving people. And he could never just leave Abby and McGee and Ducky and Gibbs. He just couldn't. His life was split in half, part in DC, part in London.

"Because…" How could he say no to his wife and child. He didn't know what he was doing, traveling every month to see them when he could just move to England. He loved his job, but he loved his family even more. He loved breakfast and dinner with them. He loved movies with them. He loved days out with them and days in with them. He loved nights with Ziva. He loved being near them, just under the same roof as them. But NCIS was the only job he had held for more than two years, and that was because he fit there. He had to good things, and he had to choose one. Anthony DiNozzo had never been one for choosing.

"Because you love NCIS and you love America." She finished for him, a soft smile on her face. "I know."

"I love you two more. You understand that, don't you?"

"Of course I do. But I understand how much everyone in America means to you too. I should not have asked you to stay." She pressed her lips to his. "Just promise me you will come home."

"Hey, that's what this is." He held her hand up and kissed her ring. "A promise. I'll come home to you. And I'll call you every day and I'll pin up all of the drawings Anton gave me and I'll get time off again as soon as I can." He rubbed the moisture off of her cheeks and brushed his lips across her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too." She let go of him so he could say goodbye to the little boy who was standing, staring up at his parents.

"Hey, Anton, Buddy. You remember your promise to Daddy?"

"Mhmm. I keep it well." He wrapped his arms around Tony's neck so he could be picked up.

"You sure did. Can you do the same this time. I want you to remember that I love you too. I love both of you so, so much." He placed the child down again, not without kissing his cheek and his forehead. "Does Daddy get a smile to remember you with?" He asked and Anton obliged. He smiled at his son and then at his wife as he started backing away. "I don't know if I can do this one-eighty." He let the tears run down his face, not caring who saw.

* * *

"We miss you, Tony." Ziva sighed as she sat, Anton on her lap, talking to her husband over video call.

"I miss you too. I miss seeing my beautiful wife and my handsome son, who is getting so big." He bit back tears as he realised how much he was missing.

"When are you next coming home?" Her voice quavered as she hid her face in their son's hair.

"I'll try and get some time off for your birthday, but with two visits in three months I think Gibbs is already getting angry." He looked at her downhearted expression and sighed. "I'll try, Sweetcheeks. I'll try."

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Buddy?"

"You still wuv me and Ima?"

"Oh, Buddy, of course I do. I always will, even if I'm not there right now, I always will. You're my special little boy. And your Ima, well, what can I say? She's the most beautiful woman in the whole world. Tell her to stop worrying for me."

"I think I am allowed to worry. You only wear your wedding band when you are at home and there are so many pretty young blondes over in America that…"

"Ziva, stop. None of them are anything compared to you. You are the woman of my dreams and…" He was interrupted by a knocking at the door.

"Tony, open up!"

"McGee, what do you think you're doing here?" Tony called, an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry." He whispered. "I love you both so much." He closed the lid of the laptop down before Anton's cries could be heard by McGee.

"I'm worried about you. We all are." McGee said through the door. "Now let me in."

"Just give me a moment to get dressed." He ran and grabbed the photo of him, Ziva and Anton off of the piano and placed it in the closest drawer. He checked the apartment, closing the kitchen door to hide Anton's drawings and paintings that covered his fridge. He wished he could show them off, show everyone how proud of his son he was, but he knew that Ziva didn't want that. He knew that she didn't want everyone else rummaging through their life and criticising it for the way they were living it. They both knew that as soon as everyone else found out where they were and what was happening, Abby and everyone else would want for them to move back to America and Ziva did not seem to want that. Happy that there was no trace of them visible he opened the door, stuffing his hand in his pocket before McGee could notice the gold ring on his finger. "Probie, not that it's not great to see you and all, but what are you doing here?"

"We're worried about you. You've been miserable since you went to London. And you're being so secretive, and Abby doesn't like it." He walked in, without an invitation, and Tony really wished he had taught him some more manners.

"Look, McWorry, I'm fine. Really."

"Who were you talking to?"

"No-one, I had the TV on."

"But I heard your voice." McGee narrowed his eyes as he looked around the apartment. It looked like Tony's apartment, but he didn't look like Tony when he stood in it.

"I was quoting. It's been a long day, could you just go, give me some peace and quiet?" He placed his hands on McGee's shoulders, pulling them away when he remembered the ring and hiding them behind his back. Luckily, McGee was too busy snooping around his apartment to see the flash of metal.

"When was the last time you had a date?"

"Uh…" Lie, God-damn-it, Lie! "Last week…maybe." He didn't sound as confident as he would have liked.

"Tony?"

"Fine, it was a couple of months ago. Last time I had the weekend off."

"Yeah, about that. Where did you go, you never did say?"

"Oh, you know, here, there, everywhere. Now, I'm tired, so could you stop being so McNosey, stop McProbing into my life and get your own McLife, McGemcity." He slammed the door in McGee's face and slid down to sit with his head in his hands as he though about his wife and child in a completely different country.

* * *

"Gibbs, it has to be the second week of November."

"Why, DiNozzo?" Gibbs narrowed his eyes at his senior field agent. He was beginning to get on his nerves.

"Because I promised! Look, this will be the last weekend I have off, I just have to do this."

"No, we have a conference."

"You hate conferences! You always complain about them."

"Which is why you're not getting out of it. You're gonna suffer like the rest of us."

"Please." His would beg if he had to. "I know you would do the same thing if you were me. You probably have. I have to do this…" He groaned. "If you knew what was going on, there would be none of these problems."

"Then enlighten me, DiNozzo." Gibbs growled.

"I can't." He stepped back, hitting the wall of the elevator and realising he had nowhere left to run. "I think you have a rule for it, or I would be surprised if you didn't, or maybe Mike had a rule for it. I dunno. Just, trust me. Please. I have to be there."

"Where?"

"I can't…"

"I'm not letting you go on another mystery trip without finding out where you're going."

"Why?"

"What if something happens? I need to know where you are, Tony." He looked at his senior agent.

"London. I'm going to London." He sighed.

"Is this all about some girl, DiNozzo?"

"No! Not 'all about some girl'!" He stormed out of the elevator. "This is about more than a girl, and if you knew, if you just knew, you would be ashamed for thinking such a thing!"

"Would I now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, because you might just be able to be proud of me for once. I'm doing as good a job as I can with the situation that I've got and we're coping. God knows how, but we're coping!" He sat back down after his outburst, realising that everyone was staring at him and the whole office was silent.

"This is the last one of your mystery trips you go on. Understood?"

He sighed. "Yes boss."

* * *

"I can't keep doing this." She pulled away from him, horrified. She blinked slowly, trying to check that she heard him correctly. He quickly shook his head, correcting himself. "I can't keep leaving you two. Come back to America with me. I got a new apartment, three bedrooms, right next to some really good schools and near enough to work that I can still commute, but not so close that if you still don't want them to know, you can still live your life without any worries of anyone we know seeing you." His eyes pleaded with her. "I can't miss him growing up, and I can't stand to be away from you any more. Please."

She deliberated for a moment. This is what she wanted in the first place, wasn't it? Yes. What was keeping her in London? Nothing. She loved him. She was married to him. They had a son. Why not live together? She captured his lips with hers. "Yes." They were both smiling as their lips locked together. "I would like that. A lot." She leant her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Good." He pressed his lips to the top of her head and then shifted slightly so they were looking at one another but still tangled together with the bed sheets. "Ziva, when I asked you about having more kids, you said we would talk about it, but we never did."

"Well," She started, moving her hand up to caress his face. "we can talk about it now."

"I want to know why you didn't want to talk about it then first."

"Tony, I was alone when I found out that I was pregnant with Anton. I had nobody. Nobody who I could turn to when I needed support. I did not want to go back to you after I had sent you away because, well, I felt it would make me seem…weak." She struggled for the words she needed. "It was not your fault, if anyone's it was mine, but I went through the first nine months without you pregnant. That first year without you would have been hard enough, but I had to cope with a child, your child, growing inside of me. I blame nobody but myself for that hardship, and it was not so bad, but I could not do it again. I could not go through a whole pregnancy alone again. Especially not with Anton being the age he is. Maybe if he was slightly older, it would be easier alone, but not now."

"I understand." He smiled and pressed his lips to hers. "So, that means that now you're coming back home with me, there's a possibility that we could, maybe, have another little baby?" He looked at her hopefully.

"We shall see, Tony. We shall see." She chuckled quietly, as he started eagerly pressing kisses down her neck and along her collarbone, letting her fingers entwine in his hair.

* * *

"I don't want Daddy to go!" Anton wailed, attracting the attention of passers by.

"I know. I don't want to leave you, either, Buddy, but guess what? You're coming to America in three weeks. Just three, short little weeks." Tony smiled, wiping his son's tears away. Anton just pouted and traced Tony's features with his chubby fingers.

"Why twee weeks?"

"Well, that's how soon your Ima can sort out your passports and organise to have someone renting the house and have all your stuff shipped over and get everything on this end sorted and that's how long it's gonna take Daddy to get everything ready in America."

"Too long!"

"I know, Bud. I know. It's gonna be the longest three weeks in history." He looked over to Ziva. "But I will still call every day, and we can video call every Friday and I'll still love you." He kissed Anton on the forehead and placed him down. "Come here."

"I will miss you." She whispered in his ear.

"I know. I'll miss you too. But we'll be back together again before you know it. And next time it won't be you greeting me at the airport."

"I love you, Tony."

"I love you too. Both of you." He squeezed her tighter before pulling back slightly and pressing his lips to hers. "Most definitely the hardest one eighty yet."

 **I know that is not how weddings work and that it would be an awful lot of strings to pull, but this is fiction. It says so in the web address, check if you do not believe me. Look, it is just at the top of your screen.**

 **There is going to be another chapter, because I realised that this was about 12000 words and I was not even close to finishing. So I cut it in half.**


	3. Home

**Hello, hello, hello, how are we all today? That good, huh? Well, I know what will cheer you up…some good, old fanfiction. Sadly, this is not as good as I would have liked, but like I said with the last chapter, a lot of this was lost and reconstructed. But I would still say it is worth reading. You do not have to like it, just give it a chance.**

Home

"DiNozzo, why'd you have to go anger the guy?" Gibbs sighed as Tony sank into his chair after the phone call.

"Because he killed a child, Boss."

"I know, Tony. We all do. Doesn't mean you can taunt him. Wait until we've caught him until you do that."

"Boss, do you think that the threat was real?" McGee asked and both Tony and Gibbs looked to Bishop, eyebrows raised.

"Er…he sounded like he meant it. He's proved that he's ruthless and I don't think he has anything to lose." She bit her lip and furrowed her brow before taking a bite of an apple. "He likes to show how clever he is, how powerful he is."

"So that's a yes?" Gibbs looked at her. She nodded and Tony slammed his fist against the surface of his desk. "DiNozzo, why's this case getting to you so much?" Gibbs walked over, his eyes narrowed as he leant close so the other two agents in the bullpen couldn't hear.

"Because it's a child, Boss."

"We've dealt with dead children before. Why this one?" Gibbs leant forward even closer.

"Because she looked like…" He closed his eyes, the images of the small girl with the dark, curly hair, green eyes and a bullet hole flashed though his mind, intermingled with images of Anton. He felt his stomach turn and opened his eyes again to see Gibbs' clear blue ones staring into him. "She looked like someone I used to know." He sighed.

"You're having security until this is over." Gibbs said quietly.

"No, Gibbs. I can't…it's…" His mind flashed back to Ziva and Anton. They were spending the day baking. He had been looking forward to the freshly baked cookies and the upside-down cake he'd been promised.

"DiNozzo." His tone left no room for arguments and Tony ran a hand over his face.

"Fine. But I need to go somewhere first. No protection detail. Alone. I'll be back in an hour. Maybe slightly more." He jumped up and ran before anyone could tell him the contrary. He took the stairs, knowing that the elevator took to long and needing the rhythmic pounding to help him focus on what he was going to tell them. The little slice of peaceful heaven they had settled into was going to shatter immediately, whatever he said. Possibly even before he said it, judging by how dishevelled he looked and Ziva's strange ninja senses. He was halfway home before he knew it and he hadn't even started to contemplate how he was going to tell them that he had screwed up, that they were going to have to tell everyone their secret. And again, as he pulled up in his parking spot his mind was empty. Blank. He exhaled slowly before exiting his car and ducking inside the apartment building, taking the steps two at a time. "Ziva! Anton! Where are you?" He leaned back against the door as it slammed behind him, trying to catch his breath.

"Tony, what is going on?" Ziva ran through, hearing the panic in her husband's voice.

"Ah, I kinda screwed up…"

"You told Gibbs about us, yes?" Her face was a picture of anger.

"No." He walked over and took Anton from her arms, hugging him tight to his body and breathing in the soft scent of the baby shampoo. Her anger dissipated immediately as she saw the love mixed with fear in his eyes. "But he'll know soon. I angered a killer. And he kinda threatened me. And Gibbs wants to put a security detail on me. And I'm not letting you or Anton get hurt because of my stupid over-reaction. Come on, I'm taking you into NCIS."

"Okay." She nodded and walked into the other room.

"No, Ziva. I'm serious, this guy wants me…wait, what?" He followed her and watched as she packed a backpack for Anton.

"I said okay, Tony." She walked up to him, resting a hand on his cheek. "I understand."

"So you're not mad at me?"

"Of course I am mad at you, I just know that right now that is not what matters." She pressed her lips to his. "Besides. I love you."

"I'm glad. I love you too." He bent his head down, his forehead rested against hers. He placed his hand in his pocket, pulling it out with his wedding band sat on his finger. "That's better."

"Complete." She smiled, pressing her lips to Anton's forehead as he sat in Tony's arms. "I'll pack you a bag." She tapped her husband's nose and sauntered out of the room, allowing Tony a pleasant view.

"Ima looks particularly good today, don't you think, Bud?" Anton just frowned at him. "Yeah. That's weird, asking you that. Forget I said anything. Hey, we're gonna go see some of Ima and Daddy's friends."

"Grandpa Gibbs?"

"Sure. Hey, you've been listening to me." He smiled proudly and placed a kiss to the top of the little boy's head.

"Ready, Tony." Ziva passed him a backpack. "That has both of our clothes in. Just in case we need to…" She trailed off and he nodded, knowing exactly what was going through her mind. She slung a small red, backpack over her shoulder and smiled weakly.

"You ready for this?"

"Not at all." She shook her head and opened the door. "But what can we do?"

"I like the optimism right there." He said sarcastically, placing a hand on the small of her back and guiding her out of the apartment block.

"How mad do you think Abby is going to be? That we kept everything a secret from them?"

"Somewhere between 'padded cell and straight jacked' and Jeffrey Goines." He grinned. "Have we watched Twelve Monkeys yet? Great film, but odd ending though. It's foreshadowed throughout the whole film, but you expect it to end differently."

"How about you just tell me the highlights and give me a few quotes?"

"Er… 'There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion.'"

"Okay, Tony, I was joking." She sighed. She knew he was just trying to take her mind off the idea of the upcoming confrontations, but film quotes were not going to distract her. She sat in the passenger seat of his 1975 Ferrari Dino, red – of course – as he buckled Anton into his car seat in the rear. She had asked him to buy a sensible car when they had arrived, but after two weeks she had begun to feel strangely attached to it, and after a month, well...

"Hey, it's gonna be okay." He placed a comforting hand on her thigh, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I know." She smiled. "I am just nervous. So much has changed, I did not expect to ever see anyone from NCIS again, I just…"

"It was gonna happen sooner or later. Just a matter of time."

"I wish we had more time." She watched out of the window. "I like it being just the three of us. I do not want to changed that."

"And we don't have to. We're just gonna have to let Abby and McGee and Gibbs see us every so often." He shrugged. She looked down at her lap, a worried expression passing across her face.

"You are right. We do not have to change."

"You okay?"

"Yes." She looked up at him and smiled warmly.

* * *

"Anton, Buddy, could you just sit still, just whilst we're in the elevator." Tony said, his son bouncing in his arms.

"'Cited."

"Yeah, I know you're excited, but Ima's not." Tony whispered quietly.

"Why?"

"Long story, Bud." The elevator dinged and Tony smiled to Ziva as the door slid open. He stepped out, swinging Anton onto his shoulders before slipping one of his hands into one of Ziva's and pressing his lips to her temple. "Breathe." He whispered into her ear as he pulled away, looking up at the shocked faces of the few agents walking through the squad room, particularly the few who recognised Ziva.

"One and a half hours, DiNozzo. Better be worth your life…Ziva?" Gibbs looked up, his voice catching the attention of the other two agents in the room.

"Worth more that my life, Boss." Tony shrugged as they stood, the three of them, between Tony and Ellie's desks.

"Hello, Gibbs." Ziva's voice caught in her throat and her grasp on Tony's hand grew tighter. He didn't know where to look, his guilty-yet-proud looking senior field agent, his ex-Mossad-ex-NCIS agent, or the little boy whose winning smile could melt hearts of stone – his included. The entire floor had fallen silent, nobody wanting to miss what was going on.

"DiNozzo? Explain." He demanded.

"Um. Well, I uh, here's the thing… When I went to London, when you sent me that is, I kinda, uh, well see the bookshop owner, remember? Yeah, well, I was in his shop and uh, well then I turn around and there's Ziva holding a child stood right outside, just staring at me, and I'm stood there like 'No, it can't be, can it?' and she's stood there in the middle of the road and then she drops the coffees that she's holding and then a car nearly slammed into her which made Anton cry and she ran away and so I followed her and they went to this park with a duck pond and they were talking and then Ziva told Anton that the man in the shop, that's me, was his father, although she didn't do it in a way that he would understand but she knew that I would and that's why she said it and then Daniel came over and started yelling and then they disappeared home and then I went back to the hotel and was late for contacting you and Daniel left Ziva and Anton and so they went to the park and I was already at the park and we spent the night talking and then I finished the case and then I took them to the zoo and then I got to know them because, you know, he's my son and he's a great kid and he has an amazing smile and all, but anyway, and then I had to go back and so we said goodbye at the airport and then I called them every day and then I visited three weeks later and me and Ziva kinda, uh…well, you don't need the details but then I had to go back again and then I visited again and I proposed almost as soon as I arrived and then we got married later that day and then I visited for Ziva's birthday and I told her that I couldn't keep leaving her and Anton because, you know, they're my wife and child and I couldn't face it and so I brought a new apartment and then three weeks after that they came over to live here and then a month later, today, you said I was being given a protection detail and so I went home and picked them up, because I can't stand the idea that either of them will get hurt because of me!" Tony gushed, in much the same style as Abby.

"How's Anton your kid?" Gibbs frowned and looked at the child he presumed to be Anton, sat on Tony's shoulders. He could only be two at most.

"Ah, well, uh…"

"When Tony found me in Israel we slept together." Ziva shrugged bluntly, noticing out of the corner of her eye McGee blush bright red and the little blonde woman on the floor by the filing cabinet look down in embarrassment. She assumed that she was the ex-NSA agent that Tony had told her about.

"Nicely put, Sweetcheeks. It was slightly more romantic than that, Boss."

"DiNozzo!"

"Boss?" He cringed, knowing that he was in trouble and wondering for which part of the whole affair.

"What you're telling me is that you have a wife, a child and a new apartment and you didn't tell me?"

"Yes?"

"And that wife is your old partner?"

"Yeah."

"The old partner whom you spend weeks moping about before joining a men's support group?"

"Yeah." He nodded and his grip on Ziva's hand tightened.

"You went to a men's support group?" Ziva looked up at him. "I did not know that."

"No, it was actually really good. I even enjoyed it. And I think it made me a better person."

"I did notice that you were a lot less judgemental. I thought you had just grown up though."

"Well, there is that but…wait, I was never judgemental."

"Oh, I disagree, do you not remember the time that…"

"Hey! Can you two have this discussion at a later date?" Gibbs glared at them.

"Down, Daddy. Down!" Anton started pounding on Tony's head with his fists.

"No need to hit, Buddy. You could try with some manners too one day." Tony sighed and lowered the child to the floor.

"Pwease?"

"Better." Tony chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair.

Anton toddled over to McGee and looked up at the agent. "You Gwee?"

"Uh. McGee."

"Yeah, McSpecific. He struggled with the 'Mc' part of your McName." Tony laughed.

"Bad Gwee!" His little face contorted into a frown and, much to Ziva's chagrin and everyone else's amusement, he hit McGee's knee.

"No, Baby. We do not hit people." Ziva hurried over and scooped Anton up in her arms.

"Well, I think it rather depends. Why's McGee been bad, Buddy?" Tony asked, grinning.

"Make Daddy dispear. When we talking in London and Daddy in 'Mewica."

"Oh, yeah, I agree Buddy. It wasn't very nice of him to do that, was it?"

"No!"

"I'm confused. What is it that I'm supposed to have done?"

"Well, McConfused, I had completely forgotten but, like his beautiful mother, Anton has a very good memory and he remembers you knocking on my door one evening, demanding access, which meant that I had to disconnect the video call to my wife and child who were still living in London. Not nice, McGee."

"That true, McGee?" Gibbs looked across at him.

"Well, I guess, but it's not like I knew I was breaking up a transatlantic video call between a family, which I would have known if Tony had told us!"

"Now, now, McGuilty, let's not play the blame game here. You upset a little boy and you did deserve to be hit by him."

"Tony." Ziva admonished and shook her head.

"Hey, he's your kid." Tony shrugged, ducking down when he saw her reach for the desk lamp on McGee's desk, looking up when he heard her laughing.

"Did you really think I would throw McGee's desk lamp at you?" She smirked.

"Actually, Zee-Vah, I did." He walked over to her and pressed his lips to hers, laughing when Anton wriggled out of her arms and stood next to Ellie. She took the second of her two ear-buds out and smiled at Anton as he looked at her curiously. He tilted his head and crouched down next to her, peering over to look at her laptop screen.

"He look angwy."

"He does." Ellie nodded and closed the file on the guy who was threatening Tony. "You want a gingerbread man?" She handed a tin over. "Oh, only if it's okay with…"

"It's fine, Bishop." Tony smiled, his arm wrapped around Ziva's waist. He planted a kiss to the top of her head and she twisted in his arms so they were face to face. She needed to talk to him; she was going to talk to him when he got home that night, but now that possibility seemed very slim. And she didn't want to have to talk to him whilst he was preoccupied with someone trying to kill him. "You okay? You look all serious." He tilted her chin up so he could look at her eyes.

"Fine." She shook her head and blinked. "Just worried about you, that is all."

"Hey! Can you two lovebirds stop. David, go down to Abby. Say hello. God knows she's missed you. DiNozzo. Elevator. Now."

"Actually, it is DiNozzo now. Not David." She looked at Gibbs' glare and nodded. "Right. Down to Abby. Anton, we are going…" Her eyes fell on Anton, sat cross-legged next to Bishop, watching her laptop screen. She allowed herself to smile as her son looked up and grinned, half a gingerbread man in one hand. "Ziva." She held her hand out for Ellie to shake.

"Ellie Bishop." She nodded, accepting the handshake but not standing up from where she was surrounded by paperwork. "Good to meet you."

"You too. Tony has mentioned you. Anton Baby," Ziva crouched down in front of him. "Grandpa Gibbs wants Ima to go down and talk to someone."

"Gingebread!" He held up the two legs and arm that was left of the little edible person.

"You can keep eating your gingerbread man. Say thank you."

"Tank you for Gingebread, Lellie!" He patted Ellie's hand gently and grinned a trademark DiNozzo grin. She looked shocked for a moment before reciprocating the smile.

"You're welcome." He reminded her of Tony and she couldn't help but laugh slightly.

* * *

"DiNozzo?! What have I told you about marriage?!" Gibbs yelled as he slammed the off button on the elevator down.

"Don't do it?"

"Right. So why are you waltzing in here telling me you've gone and married Ziva?!"

"'Cause I love her, Boss. Always have done, and I think you know that."

"Marriage ruins everything, DiNozzo!"

"Did marriage ruin what you had with Shannon?" Gibbs fell silent, and although he felt bad for bring such a difficult topic up, he was proud of himself for standing up to Gibbs for once.

"Shannon's dead."

"I know." Tony said sympathetically.

"It was my fault."

"Nah, it wasn't Boss. She was trying to do the right thing. Not your fault. You not marrying her wouldn't have changed the outcome, and hey, you wouldn't have had Kelly if you hadn't married her." He didn't know where all this bravery, or stupidity, was coming from. He was really toeing the line, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to defend his marriage and he wanted to make Gibbs feel better. God, what was going on with him? Where was the Anthony DiNozzo he used to be? Gibbs looked at him and appeared to be having the same thoughts, judging by the expression on his face.

"You feelin' okay, DiNozzo?"

"Yeah, Boss. You?"

"Dunno, I think I'm in a nightmare with you telling me about MY marriage!" He snapped and Tony nodded slowly.

"Right. I shouldn't have brought it up. Sorry about that Boss."

"Don't apologise." He shook his head and paused. "This is why you've been disappearing off all these times?"

"Yeah. I, uh…I guess I should have told you but…She didn't want to…when she was in England, she was happy, they were happy, and they were comfortable. She didn't want for everyone here to find out all of a sudden and everyone wanting to see them and meet Anton and start changing everything she had built for them. I couldn't disagree. And when they moved over here, even though she'll deny it, she was scared that everyone would be upset about her, y'know, disappearing in Israel, and not contacting them and telling them about Anton." He shook his head. "We're happy, Boss. We love each other, Anton's a great kid, although scary sometimes…" He chuckled. "But we're family. I'd do anything for them. I love them."

"This why you got so upset with this guy this morning?"

"She reminded me of Anton. The dark curly hair and the green eyes. I just, I kept seeing Anton in her place and I couldn't help it."

"Yeah, I understand, DiNozzo." Gibbs clamped a hand on his shoulder. "I understand."

"I'm sorry, Boss."

"Don't be. You do what you have to for family. You were right; Mike had a rule for it. Unspoken, but he had a rule."

"I thought it sounded like a Mike Franks kinda thing." Tony laughed quietly.

"Hey, you did good, Kid."

"Uh, Boss?"

"You've got a good wife and a good son." The corner of his mouth twitched up slightly, a big smile for Gibbs, and Tony's brow furrowed.

* * *

Abby sighed and hit the off button on her CD player. She just wasn't in the mood for Brain Matter. She turned back to her Mass Spec, allowing her mind to wander back to conversations of long ago.

 _"Do not worry, Abby. Sometimes you cannot see the jungle for the ferns."_

Ziva's mixed idioms. She kind of missed those. A lot. She would admit that she was not exactly welcoming to Ziva, but over the years they did become good friends. The best of friends.

 _"We've been barking up the wrong tree the whole investigation!"_

 _"Bush."_

 _"Sorry, we've been barking up the wrong…bush…?"_

 _"Tree."_

And Tony and McGee too. The four of them, they were like four siblings. Squabbling, joking, teasing, arguing, laughing. She missed that. Yes, she still had McGee and Tony and Gibbs and Palmer and Ducky. Yes, now they had Ellie, but it wasn't the same.

 _"I was just about to call Tony and McGee. I think they were having sex."_

 _"Tony and McGee?"_

With Kate, they were like sisters. It had hurt when she had died. But Ziva was like a sister too. A dangerous, scary, ninja, kick-ass sister, but a sister all the same. They'd spent two years with Kate, getting to know one another, becoming close, but they had spent eight years with Ziva. And Tony had been closer with Ziva, obviously. Anyone looking at them together was able to see the physical and emotional attraction between the two.

 _"It could be worse. It could be Saturday."_

 _"It is Saturday, Abby."_

 _"See? It just got worse. Thanks."_

Working so closely with people for so long, at such inconvenient times, in such inconvenient circumstances, there was always bound to be the fateful day in which the group is broken up. It's only natural. Snow and ice melt, fires die away, organic material decays. Nothing is permanent. Even concrete cracks and crumbles given time and enough strain.

 _"Ima, why we down here?"_

 _"Because, Baby, we are going to see another one of Ima and Daddy's friends."_

 _"Grandpa Gibbs angwy with Daddy?"_

 _"No. Maybe. I do not know."_

 _"He don't like me?"_

 _"Of course he likes you. Everyone likes you Baby. Just like your Daddy."_

Wait, that wasn't a conversation she had ever heard down in her lab. Or upstairs. Or anywhere, for that matter. And yet one voice at least was a voice that she recognised. The other was young, and had a curious accent, one she didn't recognise. She looked up from the blinking light on Major Mass Spec and looked to her doorway, frowning.

"Ima?"

"Yes, Baby?" The Israeli's voice sounded exasperated.

"Why do evwyone take the leleevatwor?"

"I do not know. It is just the way it is here. That is what everyone does." She poked her head into Abby's lab.

"Ziva? Is that you?"

"No, Abby. It is someone who looks and sounds just like Ziva."

"Ziva!" She squealed and ran over, flinging her arms around her the moment she was in reach.

"Abby, please…" She tried to conceal a small smile. "Not so loud."

"What are you doing back? Where've you been? Does Gibb know you're here? Tony? Oh, you've told Tony, haven't you? Where are you staying? Who were you talking to? Oh, we've got so much to catch up on. We've all missed you, especially Tony. Oh, it's so good to see you again! McGee said you were never coming back, but I knew, I just knew that you would." She continued to cling to Ziva's neck; her eyes squeezed tight in case it wasn't real, just a cruel trick of the mind.

"Abby, not so loud."

"Ima, she's funny!" A chortle came from the floor behind Ziva and Abby looked down, over her friend's shoulder.

"Yes Baby. Abby is very funny." She extricated herself from the Goth's grip and bent down to pick Anton up.

"Who is he?"

"This, Abby, is my son. Anton. Anton, can you say hello to Abby?"

"Hello Abby." He waved and Ziva grinned proudly at him.

"Hey. He's so handsome. How old is he?"

"Two. He is my big little man. My big brave little man."

"I a big boy."

"Yes, you are." She ruffled his hair, holding him tighter when Abby screamed. "What? Abby?"

"Oh, my God. Your hand! When? Where? Who? Why? How?" She grabbed her left hand and stared at the engagement ring and wedding band.

"Er, September 16th, London, Tony, love and Anton, a registrar's office and a lot of string pulling."

"Oh, my God! You got married? Tony got married? You and Tony got married?!"

"Yes, Abby."

"Wait. You got married and you didn't tell us?" This was what she had been waiting for. She knew this had been coming and she sighed as Abby started to rant.

"Abby, can Anton please not be here when we talk about this."

"Oh. Right. Is he okay sitting at my desk?"

"That will be fine." Ziva nodded, carrying him through and sitting him down in Abby's swivel chair as Bert was passed to him by Abby. Both women walked back through to the main lab area, letting the glass doors slide closed.

"I can't believe you two! You just have a kid and then you get married and you don't even think to tell us?! You didn't invite us; you didn't care to notify us at all. One call, Ziva! That's all it would have taken! Just to tell us you were alive, you were safe! You didn't even say goodbye!"

"And this is why I did not call. This is why Tony and I have kept our marriage and our family a secret! Because I knew that as soon as you all found out you would all want to see us regularly, at which point I was living a life in England! And when we came back to America, I was…scared, Abby! Do you understand that?"

"Oh, you were scared, were you? What did you have to be scared of, exactly?"

"This! Everyone angry because we did not tell them! We like the way our life is and we do not want to change that! Not for anybody!" Ziva wasn't certain what had made her yell back, she had planned to just let Abby get whatever she needed to out of her system and then they would hopefully be able to move on. But alas, something had snapped, and she couldn't stop herself. "I was scared of what you would think, Abby." She lowered her voice and looked down, her cheeks flushed with the embarrassment from admitting fear.

"Oh, Ziva!" Abby's hard exterior crumbled immediately and she ran over, enveloping her in a tight hug. "We've all missed you so much."

"I have missed you too."

"We've got to stop shouting at each other and then hugging each time we reunite."

"Yes, Abby. We do." Ziva sniffed and tried to wipe a tear away discretely.

"You need a tissue?"

"No. I am fine." She shook her head. "Come meet Anton properly."

"Tony's his biological father, right?"

"Mmhm. When he found me in Israel." She pre-empted Abby's next question. "And yes, he only met Anton when Gibbs sent him to London."

"He's so cute." Abby grinned as they walked through the glass doors.

"He is so much like his father." Ziva picked him up and he started bouncing in her arms immediately.

"Daddy!" He squealed. "Daddy handsome just like me!"

"Yes, you are both my handsome men."

"Aw, he really is a little Tony."

"I think he was trying to flirt with Ellie Bishop earlier." Ziva shook her head and smiled. She had missed being around everyone. She had missed the atmosphere.

"She's married, little man. Can I hold him?"

"Sure."

"You have funny thingy." He patted one of Abby's tattoos.

"Yes, I do." Ziva smiled and watched as they interacted and she wondered why she had been so worried. Sure, Abby had been momentarily angry, but then she had gone back to being, well, Abby. She felt strong arms embrace her from behind and couldn't conceal the smile that flourished across her face.

"Daddy's little boy, taking on his father's role of ladies' man."

"Heaven help the world." She sniggered, turning in his arms. "How much trouble are you in?"

"I don't know."

"How much trouble am I in?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know anything?"

"I know that you're beautiful. And I love you. And our son is in the arms of one very gothic scientist?"

"Ah, yes. He thinks she is funny."

"Well, everyone thinks Abby is funny the first time they meet her."

"She confused me the first time I met her." Ziva smiled, looping her arms around Tony's neck and softly pressing her lips to his.

"A common feeling when around Ms Sciuto." He chuckled slightly, running a thumb along her cheekbone. They kept their eyes locked together, staring intently and conversing without sound. "You've got that worried look in your eyes again. What do you want to talk to me about?"

"After we are out of danger, Tony. When this man is caught. Then we shall talk."

"Sounds ominous." He leaned his forehead against hers, completely serious. "I'm not going to like what you have to say, am I?"

"I do not know. I hope you are going to like what I have to say, because, well, it is important."

"What you're going to say is important or me liking it is important?"

"Both." She quickly pecked his cheek and turned back around to see Abby dancing with the little boy.

* * *

"Gwee!" Anton ran back into the squad room, Tony and Ziva following closely, and wrapped his arms around McGee's leg. "Wuv you Gwee!"

"Uh, right. Didn't you hate me, just two hours ago?"

"He's like Abby, McGee. He likes hugs." Tony shrugged, pressing his lips to Ziva's before sitting down, grinning when she sat on his lap instead of on his desk where he had expected her to perch.

"Where Lellie go?" He walked over to the spot on the floor by the filing cabinet and frowned, leaning closer and then looking up. "Not here. Gone."

"Hey, look, DiNozzo. He's got your skills as an investigator!" Gibbs laughed slightly and walked over to the little boy, crouching down so they were at the same height. Anton scowled at him and hit the top of his head, making Gibbs' eyes widen.

"Don't be mean to Daddy."

"Protective of his family, too." He smiled slightly. "If I apologise to your Daddy, will you forgive me?"

"Depens."

"On?"

"Why you mean to him."

Gibbs sniggered at the child. "Well, sometimes your Daddy can be very silly."

"Ima say that what makes Daddy Daddy."

"And she's right. I don't be mean to be mean, it's just the way I am sometimes. That acceptable?"

"Hm." Anton looked at him suspiciously, but nodded.

Gibbs turned to the couple sitting at Tony's desk, both smirking. "DiNozzo. I'm sorry for being mean to you. It was unkind and unprofessional."

"Nah, no hard feelings, Boss. I'm used to it by now, anyway." He grinned and Gibbs shook his head.

"Ziva. Elevator." He said as he stood up. Her eyes widened and she bit her lip. "Problem?"

"Um…no." She cautiously stood from Tony's lap and started following him.

"Ima!" Anton ran over and clung to her leg. She sighed and bent down to his height.

"I am just going with Grandpa Gibbs. Stay with Daddy for me." She kissed his forehead and he nodded, running back over to his father as she made her way to the elevator. They stood in silence until Gibbs slammed the emergency stop button.

"Grandpa Gibbs?" He raised his eyebrows at her and she blushed.

"Tony started that. It sort of stuck." She defended as he laughed.

"How've you been?"

"Good. Better than good. I am happy. _We_ are happy."

"You look it." He leaned back against the wall of the elevator and smiled at her. "Why didn't you come back when you found out about Anton?"

"Would you, if you were in my position?"

Gibbs paused, knowing that if he were in her position, he probably would have done the same thing. "You regret that decision?"

"Every day." She shrugged. "But I cannot change history. That is what I learnt when I left. Whatever happened in the past is in the past, and there is nothing I can do about that. I cannot change who I was, but I can change who I am going to be. What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm proud of you. You've, uh, you've done well." He smiled and opened his arms, allowing her to walk into his fatherly embrace.

"Thank you, Gibbs." She smiled, burying her face into his chest. "Thank you for keeping him alive for me."

"You crying, David?" She glared at him and he sighed. "DiNozzo."

"I am allowed to cry. I am…I want Anton to be able to express his emotions, not put them into bottles, because if DNA has anything to do with it, he is not going to have a chance."

"Bottle them up."

"Is that not the same as putting them into bottles?" She looked up at him.

"No." He shook his head and chuckled.

"Well, what is the difference?"

"Word order." He shrugged and she laughed. "Anton will be fine. From what I've seen he's open enough with his feelings. You've done well with him." He kissed her cheek in much the same way as he kissed Abby's cheek. "Come on, I've got a killer to catch."

* * *

"Gwee! Lellie! We home!" The child bounced through the front door to the apartment, following his parents and being followed by McGee and Bishop.

"Clear!" Gibbs yelled, walking through from checking all of the rooms and re-joining the group in the living room. "Nice place, Mr and Mrs DiNozzo."

"We like it." Tony smiled and bent down to kiss Ziva, running one hand through her hair and resting one on her hip.

"Hey, I told you to stick to your normal routine and we'll keep security." Gibbs said, hitting the back of Tony's head lightly, so as not to make the couples' foreheads collide.

"We are sticking to our usual routine, Boss. This is what happens when I get home."

Gibbs sighed and shook his head. "I'm gonna be in the car outside."

"Do you not want to stay inside for dinner? I was planning on cooking lasagne."

"I'll come up later for it. Someone needs to keep a watch on the apartment whilst you lot are having a good time." He shrugged and walked out. "Make sure the windows are all locked."

"I always do, Gibbs." Ziva replied, calling down the hallway and closing the front door. "I am going to start on dinner. Anton, Baby, are you going to help Ima?"

"Play with Daddy and Lellie and Gwee!" He laughed as Tony picked him up.

"You need any help in there?"

"No." She shook her head and pressed her lips to his. "Unless you want to help?"

"I'll probably just end up eating it all before it's even cooked." He mumbled, barely removing his lips from hers.

"That is true. Maybe you better stay in here and keep your son occupied. It seems he is flirting again."

"Ellie can handle herself." He grinned and looked in the same direction that she was to see their son sat on Ellie's lap laughing, grinning and babbling away at her. "He really is growing up quickly. Before we know it he'll be sitting in bars, flirting with co-eds."

"No." She shook her head vigorously. "No. Not for a long time. Not for another twenty years."

"So you're not going to let him go to bars until he's twenty-two?"

"No." She pouted at his amused look.

"How about eighteen. That's a good age."

"Tony, can we not talk about something that is still years away? Please?"

He pressed his lips to her forehead and smiled. "Of course. There is still time. We still have plenty of time with him growing up. I'm gonna make a coffee, you want one?"

"No, thank you." She shook her head and watched for his reaction. Nothing. She looked over to the sofa where Bishop, McGee and Anton sat. Ellie looked up and raised her eyebrows at her, before flicking her gaze down to her stomach and back up to her face, sending her a questioning look. Ziva nodded subtly, making Ellie open her mouth to congratulate her. Ziva gave her a warning look and then looked to Tony, still oblivious, and the ex-NSA agent nodded in understanding. Tony still didn't know.

"Bishop, McGee, you need anything?"

"Have you got any hot chocolate?"

"I can make some." Ziva smiled.

"I'll take a cup of coffee." McGee nodded. "I would get up and help, but…" He nodded to Anton, who was sat on his lap playing with his tie.

"It's fine, McGee." Tony shook his head. "I can make coffee. I'll make the hot chocolate too." He kissed Ziva's cheek and walked into the kitchen. Ellie waited a moment before jumping up and walking over to Ziva.

"You're pregnant?"

"Mmhm." She nodded.

"Congratulations. Wait, you're happy about this, right?"

"Yes, of course I am. I just do not know about how Tony will take it." They kept their voices hushed, knowing that McGee was trying to watch them discretely from the corner of his eye.

"Has he given any indication he doesn't want any more kids?"

"No, quite the opposite in fact."

"Well what is the problem then?"

"I…we have just got settled together and we are still getting used to everything the way it is." Her voice sounded nervous, something the NCIS agent got the impression wasn't a regular occurrence.

"You're always going to be getting used to that. There's always going to be something that you're going to have to get used to. The way I see it, you and Tony are happy, you both want another child, I think Anton would probably want to have a younger sibling. Just tell him. He'll be happy about it."

"I…I am not so sure." She bit her thumbnail.

"Oh, come on. Where is the fearless, confident legend that I have heard about?"

"Only here when there is a physical danger, nothing emotional. She did not have emotions."

"Now that I know is untrue. Abby said that you have a lot of emotions. She told me about your feelings for Tony."

"Hey, what you guys talking about?"

"Nothing." The younger agent smiled sweetly at him and skipped back over to the sofa. Ziva couldn't help but laugh slightly at this. She liked Ellie. There was something almost naïve and innocent about her, almost childlike, yet she could still hold her own.

* * *

"This smells amazing." Ellie grinned as they all sat down at the kitchen table.

"Mm, I've missed your cooking Ziva." McGee sighed in pleasure. It was true. Sure he had missed her as a friend and as a colleague, but her cooking was some of the best that he had ever eaten and it was something he had missed. "The first time we spent time together away from work, Ziva cooked for us all."

"Yeah, all but me." Tony frowned. "Thanks for bringing up a painful memory McGee."

"Are you still complaining about that, Tony?" Ziva raised her eyebrows at him, shaking her head when he offered wine.

"No wine?"

"No, I already have a glass of orange juice." She shook her head again.

"Okay." He shrugged. "And yeah I'm still complaining about that, you didn't invite me."

"Tony, firstly, I explained why I did not invite you – you had already told everyone that you were busy so I did not bother. Secondly, I cooked you Italian as soon as we got out of that box. Thirdly, that was almost ten years ago. You need to move on." She shook her head.

"I don't want to move on."

"What box?"

"Oh, we were trapped in a intermodal container for a day. It wasn't nice." Tony wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "Those were the early days."

"Early days?" Ellie looked confused. "I didn't think you two got together until…"

"No, not the early days of us as _us_. The early days of me being at NCIS. Mossad liaison officer Ziva David. It was, uh, not an easy start."

"You can say that again." McGee chuckled. "The Jean-Paul and Sophie Ranier case, when you had to…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Young ears, McGee. Young ears." Tony clamped his hands over Anton's ears and the child looked up at him, children's cutlery in hand and lasagne covering his face.

"What did you have to do?" Bishop was enjoying hearing the war stories they had to tell.

"We were undercover as married assassins."

"Ah, Jean-Paul and Sophie." Tony grinned. "I kinda miss those guys."

"You never met them, Mon Petit Pois."

"No, but I met us as them. I liked thinking you were pregnant."

"Well, maybe you will not have to imagine it."

"Yeah, one day, maybe. But until then I'll just have to look at the few photos there are of you from Anton, and I'll have to remember back to the case." Ellie raised her eyebrows at Ziva and she shrugged. Both McGee and Tony saw and frowned. "What's going on here? Is this some girly bond that you two have made in a matter of hours? You're all of a sudden best friends?"

"No, we were just talking earlier. That is all." Ziva smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Do not worry, My Little Hairy Butt."

"My butt is not hairy!"

"Not as hairy as it used to be, but it is still hairy." She wrinkled her nose at him and he leaned over and kissed it.

"Up to a three, then?"

"Maybe even a four. Out of five I would say that is very good."

"On a par with McGee." He grinned. "You remember that day?"

"The day you were arrested. The first time." She turned back to her dinner. "How could I forget?"

"I was framed." He clarified for Ellie. "Abby's evil lab assistant. _Chip_."

"What happened to him?"

"He tried to kill Abby. So she tied him up." McGee laughed. "You don't want to be on the Abby's bad side. She's like Santa in that way."

"Why were you arrested the second time?"

"Er, me and McGee kind of, sorta broke into a police impound locker thing. And got caught. It was for a case though, and Gibbs was supposed to get it expunged."

"Well, it was about time you got into trouble for something you did." Ziva chuckled, collecting all of the empty plates and taking them over to the sink.

"Hey, I can do that."

"You wash, I will dry." She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Deal." He gave her a peck on the cheek and then on the lips, allowing themselves a moment to get carried away before McGee coughed.

"I believe this is verging upon a red light situation here."

"Oh, do you remember that lecture?" Tony laughed. "That was my favourite of all of the sexual harassment lectures we've been forced to go to."

"And still you did not take any of it in."

"I wouldn't be Anthony DiNozzo if I had." He shrugged. "And that's what you love about me."

"You may have a point. Although I like it when you are a gentleman, too."

"Shh. No-one else knows that I can be a gentleman." He stage-whispered.

"I think they should."

"Nah. I think I'm good just the way I am. Don't fix what isn't broke." He grinned and she shook her head.

"I like you the way you are too."

"Well, I'm very glad. I like the way you are. But then, I cannot think of any reason why anyone would not like the way you are. You are perfect."

"What have I said about saying that?" She scolded.

"Not to."

"Then why are you?"

"Because it's true."

She sighed. "Why do I put up with you?"

"Because you love me."

"That must be it." She smiled and pressed her lips to his. "Come on, those dishes will not wash themselves." She unwound her arms from his neck.

"As you wish, Milady." He bowed down, looking up to Anton when he burst into laughter. "Are Ima and Daddy funny?" He chuckled, ruffling the little boy's hair. "Are you going to go and choose your pyjamas and story for tonight? Then we can have bath time and bed time." He watched as he slipped off the chair and toddled off.

"We're going to go back to protecting you." McGee smiled and stood up. "Dinner was amazing, Ziva. Thank you."

"It was just lasagne. There is plenty more, if you want to take some for your lunch tomorrow. You just reheat it in the microwave." She smiled.

"Well," he walked over and kissed her cheek, "we really have missed you."

"Hey, hands off my wife McGoo!"

* * *

"Mm, Tony. Stop." Ziva slipped her hands between their mouths, breaking them apart. She ignored him as he started sucking on her palm, resting her forehead on his.

"Mgh, Mwact-shemt?" She unclamped her hand so he could speak. "Why, Sweetcheeks?"

"Because Bishop is in the living room. McGee is sat outside the front door. _Gibbs is sat in the car outside._ I am not making love to you with Gibbs so close!" She hissed, rolling off from where she had been straddling him to lie next to him.

"You make a very good point. I think there is something slightly wrong with that."

"Only slightly?"

"Okay. More than slightly." He chuckled quietly. "You're beautiful, you know that?"

"I would be surprised if I did not know that, given how frequently you tell me." She smiled, pressing her lips to his.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about." Tony pulled back and looked at his wife's shocked expression. "What? You don't think I know when you're worried? You're practically radiating tension." He smiled softly, keeping his voice hushed in the dark of their bedroom. He rubbed his thumb soothingly along her forehead, putting slight pressure on it as she visibly relaxed at the contact. "Nothing's going to happen. Like you said, we have agents, and good agents at that, sitting watching us throughout the night. There's no way that anything is going to go wrong. We'll wake up tomorrow and Gibbs'll catch the guy and we can go back to being us." He kissed her tenderly and pulled back again. "But that's not why you're worried, is it? What's really bothering you?"

She sighed. He could read her like a book. "I…do you remember the night that I agreed to come home with you?"

"Yeah, one of the happiest moments of my life. That and our wedding. Oh, and meeting Anton, I quite liked that, although it was better the first time he called me Daddy..."

"Tony. Focus."

"Right. We made love."

"Before that, we were talking."

"Oh, right. Yeah, no, I remember now." He grinned. "Of course, I remember what happened after the talking _more_ , but no, I remember the talking."

"Well, we spoke about having more children, and you were very eager at the time and I was just wondering if…well, if you were still that interested in the idea…"

"Always, Sweetcheeks. Hey, we could start now if you want, I'm sure we could explain to Gibbs that we were just trying to give Anton a little brother or sister and…"

"Tony, that will not be necessary." She shook her head.

"Oh." He frowned, dejected and disheartened. "I mean, we still have time, and until then he's still got us and there's the family down the hall with the two kids, although they are slightly older than him, and I mean, he's got the guys at work now too, so he's got plenty of people to play with and…"

"Tony, I do not think he will have the children down the hall for much longer. I mean, we are going to be needing a bigger place, somewhere with three bedrooms, minimum." She wondered if he would ever be able to decipher her not-so-subtle hints. He probably wouldn't get it if she handed him the positive pregnancy tests she had taken.

"Well, yeah, but that still won't be for a few years, and we only have to start trying when you're ready, and we don't have to rush things." Just then Anton started crying. "I'll get him." Tony pressed his lips to hers as they both sat up and he swung his legs out of bed. "Five bucks on it being the monster under his bed."

"I recon it will be the bad man in his wardrobe." She sighed as he left. Anton had bad dreams like every other child did, maybe once or twice a month. She still had nightmares, too. But they were never as bad when Tony was next to her. Anton's dreams hadn't been as bad since Tony had appeared, either. She rubbed a hand over her face and slipped out of bed too, making her way through to the living room. "It is okay. It is just a bad dream." She said as Ellie pulled out her SIG and McGee burst through the door. Tony walked in with the child in his arms and he passed Ziva a five-dollar bill. The two federal agents on protection detail frowned at this. "There is no bad man in the wardrobe, Baby." She held her arms out for him and he leaned out of Tony's arms as he was transferred between his parents.

"He look angwy!"

"Anton, Baby, there is nobody in your wardrobe. It was just a dream." She rocked him in her arms slightly. "How about we go and check that it is empty."

"Mmhm." He nodded. "Lellie and Gwee check too."

"Buddy, Ellie and McGee are supposed to stay where they are."

"No, it's fine, Tony. It will be good to give the place a once over anyway, just to check that everything's secure." Tim shrugged. "We don't mind checking for bad men, it's kinda our job." He closed the door behind him and Tony shrugged, leading the group through to Anton's bedroom. He flicked the light on and opened the door to the wardrobe.

"See Buddy, no bad men." Tony smiled at him as Ellie and McGee both checked.

"Ima, you check under bed too."

"Very well." She sat him down and checked under all of the furniture. Ellie checked behind the curtains and McGee looked behind the door. Tony spent the time tucking him in, first making sure that there were no monsters under the duvet. "There. No monsters, no bad men. No-one to hurt you."

"No one hurt Ima and Daddy too."

"No, nobody is going to get hurt at all. Not tonight." Tony smiled and kissed the top of his head. "Sleep now, little man."

"Lellie and Gwee staying?"

"Yeah, we'll be here when you wake up tomorrow." The corners of Bishop's mouth twitched up in a smile. "Sleep well." She waved and left, followed by McGee, leaving the family together.

"Chalomot paz. Ani ohevet otcha." Ziva knelt beside the bed and brushed his dark curly hair away from his eyes. "You are Ima's precious boy." She kissed his nose and stood up, placing one hand on Tony's shoulder and the other on her stomach. Still he did not get the hint. She rolled her eyes.

"Night, night, Buddy. We'll have pancakes for breakfast." He grinned as the little boy giggled. He stood up from where he was sat on the edge of the bed and took Ziva in his arms. They both watched as his eyes began to droop and his breathing slowed then they walked out of the bedroom, arm in arm, turning off the light and closing the door to.

"I think when we get a new house we will need to make sure the walls are not so thin."

"If the walls are too thick we won't hear the cries."

"That is my point."

"Well, if we cannot hear the cries how will we know that something is wrong?"

"A baby monitor."

"Sweetcheeks, don't you think he's a little old for a baby monitor?"

"Not for him." She stopped in the living room and turned around.

"Then who for?"

"The baby, Tony."

"Oh. Right, yeah, but what happens when Anton cries."

"That is why we need thicker walls, so Anton does not wake the baby and so the baby does not wake Anton."

"Yeah, but we don't need the thick walls until the baby is born, so we don't need to move for a while yet."

"Well, we do not have much time until we will need to move." She shook her head and he frowned and followed her into the kitchen.

"Hey, we can take it as slowly as you want, there's no time pressure at all."

"Tony, have you really not gotten any of the clues I have been giving you all of today?"

"What clues?"

Ziva groaned and rolled her eyes, clenching her hands into fists and gritting her teeth together. "I am pregnant, Tony. I have been trying to tell you since we arrived home today."

"Well, you haven't been doing a very good job with it because…Oh, my God, we're gonna have another little baby?!" He beamed.

"Shh. Not so loud, Tony. We have just got Anton to sleep." She chuckled and nodded. "It took you a long time to figure that out. Ellie got it as soon as I declined the coffee."

"I thought you just didn't want the coffee." He shrugged, unable to keep the smile from his face and the excitement from his eyes. "You're beautiful. And amazing. And brilliant. And I love you."

"It is a good job that I love you too, then, yes?"

"Yeah." He pressed his lips to hers. "We're gonna have a baby."

"So we have established." She laughed and looked over at the clock on the wall. "It is 0130 hours. I am tired. You will be grumpy in the morning. Let us go to bed." She laid a hand on his chest and kissed his jaw. "Goodnight, Ellie." They said in unison as they walked through the living room on the way to the bedroom.

"Night. Sleep well."

 **Okay, so I am still only up to the end of season 11, I am taking my time, and so I have made up some of the stuff, and writing Bishop is a little…difficult. I know Tony does not have a Ferrari, but I really want a red '75 Ferrari Dino, and I think that if Tony saw one on sale he would not hesitate in buying it. I mean, I would not. But then when it comes to cars I am slightly…impulsive.**

 **I do not know that I like this chapter. I mean, I like parts, I like Tony's summary of what has happened, and I like Tony being completely oblivious. And I still think Anton is amazingly adorable. But apart from that I think this is sort of weak. I do not know. Tell me what you think. I did not really know how to end it, either. Would you like one more chapter? If so, I will see what I can do. I have a couple of ideas fluttering around inside my head, but I do not know yet.**


	4. Silver Linings

**This took a lot longer than I predicted, for the simple reason that every time I thought I was done with one idea I had another two that popped into my head. Mathematically, that is a lot of ideas. Actually, that is a lot of ideas, mathematically or otherwise. Anyway, to complicate matters further, none of my writing ever actually happens in the correct order, which means that I write the end before the beginning and the beginning after the middle and it is all back to front and upside-down, chapter 9 before chapter 6 and the such-like. This means that once I slotted everything together, I had to go through the whole thing and correct any inaccuracies and continuity issues, which can be quite time consuming when you keep forgetting which bits you changed to what and which plot you went with.**

 **This was actually going to be called something different, but I liked this title more and so there is going to be one last chapter with the original title of this chapter. You will have to wait a little bit for that one I am afraid.**

Silver Linings 

"ImaDaddyImaDaddyImaDaddyImaDaddy!" Anton launched himself at the bed and the couple sleeping on it.

Tony yawned and rolled over. He picked him up and held him by the torso so their bodies were parallel and Anton was suspended mid-air. "0430h. Right on schedule, Bud." He sighed as the child squealed with delight. "Who needs an alarm clock when you have a two-year-old?"

"Anton, Baby, we talked about you waking up so early." Ziva groaned as she shifted closer to her husband and snuggled her head into the crook of his neck. She looked up into his emerald orbs, bright with a cheeky glint of laughter, and saw his father's eyes look back at her. It was the same look Tony would have when he was playing a prank or telling a joke or laughing at something. It had an air of freedom about it, and a feeling of peace. It reminded her of leaving the office with Tony late at night after a long day, when they were the last two there and they had just finished hour upon hour of paperwork, when they had just been liberated from the constraints of deadlines and protocol.

"We go for walk! See duckys!" Tony lowered the boy down so he lay between himself and Ziva, nestled into the small gap created by their bodies.

"Not this morning, Baby."

"Why?"

"Well, because we're gonna stay here today with Ellie and McGee."

"Lellie and Gwee!" He chuckled. "I hungwy. Me have bweakfast?"

"What do you want?"

"Stwawbewies!"

"We do not have any strawberries, Baby."

"Nelon?"

"I think we can do something with melon. What do you want, Tony?" She pressed her lips to his jawbone, just below his ear.

"You."

"Apart from me."

"How about those amazing fried eggs you cook?"

"What happened to me never cooking you breakfast?" She wondered allowed.

"I think it was more just omelettes. And, I realised that you cooking me breakfast is so much better than me eating whatever I could find in the fridge. And, you haven't tried to break any legs whilst making omelettes in the past few months, so I think we're safe." He moved his arm over Anton so he could rest his hand on her stomach and he grinned. "You don't have to make breakfast if you don't feel up to it."

"I have told you before that cooking relaxes me. I can cook eggs if you want eggs." She smiled and groaned quietly as she stood. Tony raised his eyebrows and she laughed, making him shake his head subtly. Anton stood up on the bed, walking over to the edge and wrapping his arms around her neck. She lifted him up and kissed his nose, making him giggle. "Come on. Let us see what everybody else wants for breakfast."

"Lellie and Gwee!"

"Mmhm." She nodded, carrying him through to the living room where Bishop was sat looking out of the window. "Anything I should worry about?" She leaned over behind the agent, making her jump. "Sorry. Old habits do not die fast."

"Huh? Oh, old habits die _hard_. Yeah, Tony mentioned that about you." She smiled sleepily. "Nothing interesting. Just watching people. You have a good view from here, what with being so close to the park you get a lot of foot traffic."

"Anton likes seeing the ducks at the park."

"Hence the rubber duck pyjamas?"

"Hence the rubber duck pyjamas." Ziva nodded and shifted her child on her hip. "What do you want for breakfast? I am cooking eggs for Tony and Anton wants melon. We also have cornflakes, bread, jam, yogurt, fruit…I can probably sort whatever it is you want."

"Oh, you don't have to…"

"You are protecting us. It is the least I could do."

"Well, some eggs wouldn't go amiss. Can you do them scrambled?"

"Of course. McGee is outside the door?" Ellie nodded and Ziva smiled, walking over to the front door, opening it and making McGee yelp.

"Why didn't you knock?!" He screeched and Anton laughed.

"Because we are on the inside of the door and you are on the outside. And this is my front door, not yours."

"Right. Yeah. Um, everything okay?" He tried to change the subject.

"Yes. I am cooking breakfast and I wondered what you would like."

"Can you make those pancakes you used to make when we were on stakeout?"

"Of course. Can you ask Gibbs what he wants please?"

"Yeah…uh," He gripped her arm when she turned back into the apartment. "He says he just wants coffee."

"I can make coffee. He still drinks it with more coffee than water?"

"He says yes. He also says to make sure it's not decaf."

"Tell him that I would not dare." She smiled and walked back inside, Anton on her hip.

"Bweakyfast!"

"Yes. Breakfast." She sat him on the kitchen counter. "You sit still whilst Ima makes breakfast, or you will not get any."

"Nelon?"

"Sure, Baby." She ruffled his hair and pulled a carton of eggs out of the fridge. "Just let me get everyone else's started."

"No, Ima! I hungwy!" His bottom lip began to quiver and Ziva sighed.

"Fine. We shall do yours first. But you will have to explain to everyone why their breakfast is late." Her son wasn't spoilt; he just lacked patience, much like his father.

"I hungwy." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted at her, and it took all of her self-control not to laugh at the image.

"I am sure that you will win the hearts of everybody here with a face like that." She kissed his nose.

"You certainly will, dear lad." A voice from behind her said and she grinned, turning around to look at the old gentleman in the doorway to her kitchen.

"Doctor Donald Mallard." She walked over to him and into his arms. "Ducky."

"Shalom, Ziva." He stepped back. "Let's have a look at you then. Three years can change a person." He smiled. "Beautiful as ever. If young Anthony does not work out…"

"Hey, who says I'm not gonna work out? We're working out just fine." Tony walked past into the kitchen and removed a pile of plates from the cupboard.

"My problem with Ducky's statement was the young part."

"Hey! I am young. I'm young, aren't I, Buddy?"

"No. Daddy old." He grinned and Ziva pressed a kiss to her son's cheek.

"Yes, he is."

"McGee let you in?" Tony changed the subject.

"Yes. He is apparently looking forward to some pancakes."

"Yes, I will start making them as soon as I have…hold on." She grinned and walked back over to her son, picking him up and carrying him over to the doctor. "Ducky, meet Anton Mattia DiNozzo. Anton, meet Ducky."

"Ducky! I like duckys!" Anton giggled. "Ima, we go see duckys?"

"Not today, Baby."

"Why?"

"Why did we say we were not going to see the duckys earlier?"

"Lellie and Gwee!"

"Exactly." She nodded and turned back to Ducky.

"I hear congratulations are in order. Abby told me about the wedding."

"Sound like England! We in 'Mewica now Ima!" The child stated matter-of-factly, pointing to Ducky as he spoke.

"I heard about your life in London as well. I always did like London. And I like your pyjamas, young man."

"Duckys."

"You are a very handsome little boy. How old are you?"

"I two." He grinned proudly. "I a big boy."

"I can see that. Do you like it here in America?" He walked over to the table in the centre of the kitchen and sat down, Ziva placing Anton in the chair next to him, raised up by two cushions.

"I like Daddy and duckys and Daddy and duckys in 'Mewica."

"Buddy, the duckys are different duckys than the ones in London." Tony placed a beaker of dilute squash on the table in front of him.

"Same." He insisted with a shake of the head.

"Daddy is correct, Baby. The duckys in London were different duckys. Do you remember the white one? There is not a white ducky here, is there?"

"He stay in London in pond. He no like fly."

"But he's a duck, Buddy. Duckys like to fly. It's why they have wings." And with that Tony was quacking and flapping his arms about like wings, pulling silly faces and making Anton laugh.

"Do not make him laugh whilst he is eating, Tony." Ziva placed a bowl of chopped melon on the table and the child immediately reached over and helped himself, juice running down his chin in seconds. She plucked a small piece out of the bowl whilst he wasn't looking and popped it in her mouth.

"You're beautiful, y'know that?" Tony murmured in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. She tried to walk to the cooker where the eggs were still siting, then gave up and turned around. "And you're loving and caring and kind and warm and…" He broke off as their lips connected. Slow and sweet, warm and tender. Their hands found each other and linked together and they each smiled into the kiss.

"Tony, stop. If you want breakfast, you have to stop."

"I think I can go without breakfast."

"But I do not think that Ellie and McGee will be able to. Do you?" She chuckled as he frowned and shook his head. "Ducky, are you staying for breakfast?"

"No, my dear, I must be getting on to work. Mr Palmer is going to be late today, he's spending the morning with Breena and Victoria."

"It still seems so surreal that Palmer has a daughter." Ziva rested her head on Tony's chest.

"I'm still grasping the idea that we have a son." Tony shrugged. "Think I will be for the rest of my life."

"And soon it will not just be a son."

"Maybe a little girl?"

"Or another little boy." She smiled as she murmured in his ear.

"I can't wait."

"Me either. But we are going to have to wait because nobody but Anton has had their breakfast yet." She pressed her lips quickly but firmly to his then extricated herself from his arms.

"You need any help with that?"

"Do you think you can help without making a mess?"

"No."

"Then there is your answer." She tapped him lightly on the cheek. "Thank you for the offer, though, My Little Hairy Butt."

* * *

"Do you really think he's going to show? Just to kill Tony?"

"I think it is highly probable." Ellie sighed as she watched out of the window. Gibbs nodded up from where he sat in the car. "What were they like? Tony and Ziva, when you all worked together?"

"Tony was much like he is now, only younger, less tired, happier, not as happy as he is with Ziva and Anton, but happier than he is at work, and more immature. He was also more mature in some ways. Ziva was…not really like she is now. When she came to us, she was a killer. We'd just lost Kate, she'd just lost her brother, although we didn't know he was her brother at the time. She was confined by these boundaries that Mossad had made her conform to, and yet it was like she was straining against them, fighting to be individual, to think for herself. And then she softened slightly. Not much, but after a year she was a person, not just an officer. I don't know when it was that she fell in love with Tony, but I'm pretty sure that was what started the change in her." McGee smiled, leaning against the wall next to the window. "Tony and Ziva, they were thick as thieves. They went through a lot, together and apart. Tony's undercover op, Jenny's death, Michael's death, Somalia, Mike's death, Eli's death."

"What happened in Somalia?"

"Things I have not spoken about in many years." Ziva said as she walked through, Anton on her hip, now cleaned from the mess of breakfast and dressed for the day in blue t-shirt and a pair of orange corduroy dungarees.

"Sorry, Ziva. I didn't mean…"

"It is fine, McGee. It was a long time ago." She shrugged. "The past is in the past."

"You went through hell out there, Ziva."

"We all did."

"No, you were there for months. Tony and I, we were there for a few days. We can't begin to imagine what he did to you."

"No. You cannot. And I would prefer you did not try. Some memories should stay buried. There are things that it would do no good for you to be worrying about anymore, and Tony should definitely not have the images that his mind could conjure plaguing him." She had a distant, haunted look in her eyes and McGee wished he had never mentioned it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anton placed his hand on her cheek and she looked at him, smiling softly. "I never have to go back there again. I am staying here with you and your Daddy. And I am never leaving." Her voice was quiet as she leaned her forehead against her son's, looking into his clear, emerald eyes.

* * *

"How much longer do we have to stay under house arrest, Boss?" Tony whined. Parenthood had done nothing to improve his patience.

"Don't know, DiNozzo." Gibbs sighed, sipping the coffee Ziva had placed on the table in front of him. She was currently vacuuming the carpet in the lounge, banishing Tony, Gibbs and Anton to the kitchen-diner, whilst McGee kept watch from the car and Ellie stood outside the front door. "DiNozzo, do you think this would have happened between you two if she had stayed?"

"You mean, was it because she left that I finally managed to pluck up the courage? I don't know." He shrugged, helping Anton put a piece of jigsaw puzzle into the picture that was growing on the table. "I think…I think partly what happened in Israel was me trying to convince her to come back, partly it was because we both knew, deep down, that she wasn't coming back and it would be our last chance, and partly it was just built-up sexual tension. If she hadn't gone to Israel, nothing would've pushed us towards it."

"I'm…I'm sorry, DiNozzo." Gibbs nodded to him and Tony frowned.

"What have you got to be sorry for? My family's the best thing that's happened to me in, well, my entire life."

"You missed Ziva's pregnancy, Anton's birth, his first and second birthdays."

"There'll always be second chances." He smiled. "There was nothing you could have done about it."

"I could have been more accepting about you leaving to see them. Been more trusting."

"With my track record and history, I'm surprised you were as trusting as you were." He looked to his boss then down to his son on his lap.

"Talking about history, have you told your father yet?" Tony's smile faded. "I'll take that guilty look as a 'no' then. He deserves to know that he has a grandson."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Boss. Maybe in a year or two."

"Tony, you need to…get Anton and Ziva into the bathroom. Looks like your wish has come true." Gibbs listened to the earwig in his ear.

"Huh?"

"Richards is on his way up. Get them into the bathroom and stay there." He stood up and un-holstered his SIG, making his way to the front door where Bishop was positioned.

"But Boss, I…"

"No, DiNozzo. Rule 44. If you join us then Ziva will want to too, won't she?"

"No, she's…yeah." He nodded and sighed as he carried Anton through. Yes Ziva wasn't the agent she was when she resigned, but she was still Ziva, and no matter what happened, Ziva would always want to be a part of the action, particularly when her husband got to be a part of it. "Showtime, Sweetcheeks."

"Now? I have not finished the vacuuming."

"And I don't think that the guy trying to kill me will mind if the carpet is not pristine." Tony groaned and walked over to her, placing a hand on the small of her back. "Once the new baby is Anton's age, you are getting a job, Sweetcheeks. You vacuumed the carpet yesterday." He hissed into her ear. "I do not think the poor carpet can take it."

"Just get into the bathroom, Tony." She rolled her eyes, knowing that he was right.

"It not bath-time." Anton shook his head and pouted, a look of confusion written on his face as his parents sat down next to each other with their backs to the bathtub. Tony held the child securely in his lap, resting his cheek on the boy's mass of curly brown hair and staring into Ziva's eyes. She still had the look of determination and bravery that she had always had, but there was something added. He could see fear for her family in her eyes too now.

"I know, Buddy, but we're gonna stay in here for a little bit."

"Why?"

"We're gonna play hide and seek. Grandpa Gibbs is gonna try and find us." Tony tried to smile and struggled.

"Don't worry. Grandpa Gibbs not find us here." Anton grinned and patted his father's cheeks.

"Yes. We shall stay nice and quiet, and nobody will be able to find us." Ziva said, the fear not tainting her strong, confident voice.

"Sing song please, Ima." He whispered, reaching over to cover his parents entwined hands that were curled onto her stomach with his little one. She smiled and thought for a moment before starting to softly sing 'Raindrops keep falling on my head'. Tony joined in quietly, promising himself he would show Anton Butch Cassidy when everything was over. They fell silent when the first gunshot rang out. The child cried and buried his head into Tony's chest at the second.

"Anton, Baby, you have to be really quiet now." Ziva whispered as she stood and walked over to the toilet, un-taping the gun that was stashed there.

Tony looked up and winked at her. "Godfather style." She walked back and sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I love you, Tony."

"Don't say it like that. Saying it like that makes it sound like a goodbye, and we've had too many of those already." He tilted her chin up so he was looking into her eyes. "No more goodbyes." The door handle clicked as it turned and they prepared themselves for the worst, only to be confronted with Gibbs.

"Good plan, DiNozzo."

"What happened?"

"Pulled a gun on McGee. So Bishop put a round in his shoulder. Then he aimed at her. He won't be bothering us again." He smiled and leaned down to pick Anton up. "Hey, big boy. You okay?"

"No like funder." He shook his head, fat teardrops streaming down his cheeks.

"The thunder's stopped now." Gibbs smiled, pressing a kiss to the little boy's forehead as his parents stood up, each sighing in relief.

* * *

"What are you thinking about?" Tony asked as he felt drops of moisture soaking into his shirt.

"My father." Ziva whispered. She was wedged comfortably between him and the back of the sofa, her cheek pressed to his chest and Anton sleeping just below it. Her arm was draped over his small body and her hand was lightly drawing patterns on Tony's side. "I was wondering what he would have thought of Anton."

"And what do you think he would have thought of Anton?"

"I do not know. I think he would have wanted to meet him, just once. But I believe that would have been all. Anton is half you, and my father never approved of you."

"Yeah, that always came across pretty loud and clear." Tony played with strands of her hair.

"But, when he was here, the last time I saw him before… We were looking at photos. He found the photo of me undercover."

"The fake pregnancy."

"Yes. He alluded to my starting a family, having children. I always thought he meant for me to, one day, return to Israel, marry a nice Jewish man of his standards. But now I look back on it he never implied that. He never even suggested I return." She found his hand and clasped it in hers. "I never wanted to disappoint him. It was always my biggest fear."

"Ziva, nothing you have done could disappoint him. You will never be a disappointment, to anyone. I can promise you that, Ziva."

"Tony, he was never proud of me."

"I think that deep down he was. I just don't think he knew how to express it." He didn't himself believe it. He had never liked Eli, not since the day Ziva had mentioned him never turning up to any of her dance performances. But he loved his wife, and if bending the truth to convince her that her father loved her was what it took to give her confidence, that was what he would do. He would do anything for her, even if it did make Eli David turn in his grave. "He was like Gibbs in that respect."

"No. He was nothing like Gibbs." She shook her head. "Gibbs puts family first. That was something he never did."

"I still think he would have been proud of you. I am proud of you. You have done so well, with work, with life, with Anton, with love." He pressed his lips softly to the top of her head. "I love you, Ziva DiNozzo. Never forget that."

"And you will never forget that I love you?" She looked up at him.

"Not in a thousand years." He smiled down at her as she laid her head back on his chest, sighing contently and letting her eyes drift close.

* * *

Ziva felt soft lips on the exposed skin of the back of her neck and warm arms wrapping around her waist. She grinned, turning around so their fronts were pressed together. Tony leaned his forehead down to meet hers. His hands sat on her hips as his thumbs ran up and down the outside of her stomach. "When do we tell him? About the baby?"

"Gibbs?"

"Anton." He looked at her, knowing that she knew what he meant.

"I do not know. After the scan."

"Why don't we take him along to the scan with us? It might be an easier way to explain it to him." She looked up at him and smiled slightly.

"It does solve that problem." She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest. "When do we tell Gibbs?"

"I don't know."

"I have asked Ellie to keep quiet about the baby for now. I believe she will."

"Unless Gibbs interrogates her."

"There is always that." She chuckled quietly; pressing light kisses to his bare chest. "Is he asleep?"

"Finally. He kept asking for one more story. Then he wanted to go and see the duckys. What is it with him and the duckys?"

"When he could not sleep, or if I was having a bad day, or if he was having a bad day, I would take him to the park and we would sit and watch the ducks. It was more the water that calmed me down, but he liked watching the ducks." She chuckled slightly before they lapsed back into silence. She continued to brush trails of kisses along his chest as he played with her dark, curly hair where it cascaded down her back.

"Where were you and what were you doing when you found out about Anton?"

"I had been traveling. Visiting old friends, enemies. Going to places with good and bad memories. I was in Cairo, where I first met Jen. I had been feeling ill for a couple of days, and I thought that it was just the traveling, but then I missed my period and I…my world went from bad to worse in a matter of minutes." She looked up at his confused face. "I was terrified. I had never seriously considered being a mother, and I could not come back to you, not after I had sent you away. And so I spent the rest of my week in Egypt not doing volunteer work and remembering, like I had planned to, but considering my options. The way I saw it, I had two. Either I could go back to Israel, to my Aunt Nettie, and explain everything to her, go through everything with her. Or, I could go on traveling, ignore the fact that I was pregnant for as long as physically possible."

"You went with the former?"

"Latter. Denial was easier, even if it was childish." She sighed. "I was in Paris when he first kicked: the hotel that we stayed at. I even asked for the same room." She smiled at the memory. "I could not ignore him after that. And so then I went back to Nettie. She died three weeks before he was born."

"I'm sorry, Ziva."

"She was getting old. She said that she was ready to go." She wrapped her arms tighter around him. "Can we go to bed, please?"

"Of course." He smiled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "This time you don't need to worry about being alone. I'll be here for the rest of eternity. Trust me, you're not getting rid of me now."

"I do not think I would want to get rid of you, My Little Hairy Butt."

* * *

"Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Anton squealed as he ran out of the elevator and wrapped his arms around Tony's legs.

"Hey, Buddy. Hey, Beautiful." He pressed a quick kiss to Ziva's lips when she followed him over.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Go where, Agent DiNozzo?" Gibbs looked up from the report he was reading.

"I, uh…we have a, uh, appointment."

"You have not told him, have you?" Ziva glared and looked over to Ellie, rolling her eyes. The young agent just smiled and shook her head. She walked over to Gibbs so McGee and Abby couldn't overhear. "I have an ultrasound appointment."

He smiled. It was the first time she had seen him properly smile since she had returned. "Who else knows?"

"Tony and Ellie. We are going to be taking Anton along with us. Then we shall tell Abby and McGee and everyone else when we get back."

"Congratulations." He nodded. "DiNozzo, get going." He called over her head and the senior field agent hurried to grab his bag, scooping up Anton in one arm. Everyone watched as they left.

"Where are they going, Boss?" McGee looked up from where he and Abby were trying to look like they weren't interested at all in what they were saying.

"Doctors appointment."

"Gibbs!" Abby cried. "What's wrong? Who's sick? We've only just got Ziva back, and Anton and…"

"Abs, they're gonna be okay. Nothing life-threatening." He smiled at her worry. She just pouted, turning back to McGee.

* * *

"Why we here?" Anton asked for the fifth time since they had sat down in the waiting room.

"Ima has to see a doctor." Tony said, taking his wife's hand in his own and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

"Ima poorly?"

"No, Baby. Ima is not poorly."

"Why?"

"Why am I not poorly?"

"Why we here if you not poorly?" He stood up uneasily on his father's knees and walked over to stand on her lap. She placed her hands on the sides of his torso to steady him as he leaned his forehead on hers and looked into her eyes, a frown creasing his face.

"Well…" She was cut off by her name being called. "Come on." She stood up, swinging him onto her hip and pressing a kiss to his cheek. Tony gripped her hand and beamed at her.

"Nervous?"

"Excited." She grinned.

"Why you 'cited Ima?"

"Because this is very exciting." Tony ruffled his son's hair as the child pondered this. Luckily, the conundrum kept him quiet until they were in the examination room.

"Hi. I'm Doctor Harvey. You must be Ziva." He held his hand out for Ziva to shake and she accepted it, smiling. Tony bristled. The doctor was young, for a doctor, and dashing. He had dark hair, perfectly sculpted of course, and tanned skin with perfect white teeth and a good smile. And Ziva was smiling at him.

"Tony DiNozzo. Ziva's husband." He said gruffly.

"I think he got that from the fact that we share a surname, Tony." She murmured and he growled.

"And who's this little man?"

"I Anton. I a big boy." The child grinned.

"You are? And how old are you, Anton?"

"Two. I almost fwee!"

"Wow. You're almost an adult." The doctor smiled. "So Ziva, did you come here when you were pregnant with Anton or…"

"I was in Israel. It would have been a long journey just for a doctors appointment." She explained.

"Ah, well, yes, that would be the case. If you'll just sit down, we have a lot to discuss. So, Anton, can you just sit on your Daddy's lap over there for a minute?"

"Want Ima!"

"Anton, Baby, I am going to be sat on this bed here and Daddy is going to be on that chair. Just there, you can hold my hand if you want." She handed him to Tony and within moments he was happily playing with his father's tie.

He sat swinging his legs on his father's lap, taking in everything in the room and understanding more or less nothing as he tried to listen to what the adults were saying. There were a lot of long words that he had never even heard before along with words he had heard but didn't understand. After what felt like hours, but was in reality about fifteen minutes, he decided that he was bored of sitting on Tony's lap and, whilst Tony was distracted by a question from the doctor, he slipped off and wandered around the office. Everything looked pretty much the same as it had from his position sat down, only higher up.

"Have you had any morning sickness at all, Ziva?"

Anton knew the answer to this question. "Ima not poorly, she 'cited. Can we go see Auntie Absy now pwease?"

"Anton, do you know why your Ima is here?"

"Because she not poorly, she 'cited." He repeated, huffing in an exasperated manner. Why did nobody ever listen to him?

"But do you know why she's excited?"

"Because this vewy 'citing."

"It is. But do you know what 'it' is?"

That question stumped him. He turned to his father and then his mother. And then he turned to the doctor. "Do _you_ know what 'it' is?"

"I should hope I do." He smiled. "Anton, would you like to climb up on the bed and see something very, very special?" He nodded and Dr Harvey lifted him up so he could sit next to where Ziva lay. She rolled her t-shirt up without being asked and the doctor smiled. Anton watched as the doctor squeezed a small amount of clear gel onto his mother's stomach and took a curious looking object with a wire connecting it to a machine. He looked at the doctor sceptically and then turned to where the object was moving over Ziva's skin. He studied her stomach closely. It didn't seem any different or special to normal. In fact, it didn't look any different or special compared to his. He moved his head closer, but still couldn't figure out what was so important. Maybe it was slightly less flat than it normally was, but he could explain that easily; she had been eating too many of his daddy's pizzas. "Over here, Anton." Dr Harvey pointed to a screen where a black and white image was flickering slightly. "Do you know what that is?"

"A movie."

"Not quite." He chuckled at Anton's frown. "That there…" He pointed to a small patch in the corner of the screen. "Is a little baby."

"It don't look like baby." The boy shook his head.

"But it is a baby. And it's inside your Ima's tummy."

"Why it in Ima's tummy?"

"Well, your Ima is keeping the baby nice and warm and safe until it's big enough to come and meet you."

"When?"

"Well, in a few months." The doctor continued to answer Anton's questions and Tony took his wife's hand in his.

"That's our baby." He beamed, pride and excitement gleaming in his eyes. "We're gonna have a little baby."

* * *

Tony spun her under his arm as they walked off the elevator, catching her and planting a kiss on her lips. "You're beautiful. And amazing. And wonderful. And I love you."

"I love you, too."

"I wuv you!" Anton grinned, sat on Tony's shoulders.

"And we love yo…" She was cut off by Abby colliding with her, wrapping her arms around her so tightly she could barely breathe.

"Abby, please let my wife go."

"No. I don't want her to die. You're not allowed to be sick. We've just got you back."

"Absy, Ima not poorly, she 'cited." Anton sighed, reaching down and patting the scientist's head.

"What?" Abby pulled back. "Why's she excited?" She was now thoroughly confused.

"'Cause of baby in tummy. Doctor says so." He stated matter-of-factly. Abby's eyes bulged.

"Baby? Eeeeeeee!" She bounced around.

"Well, there goes the need to make some sort of formal announcement." Tony shrugged and Ziva laughed as the rest of Team Gibbs gathered by the elevator.

"What's going on?" McGee looked between the three adults and Anton. Ellie just smirked. "What?!"

"Ima got baby in tummy!"

"Really? Oh, congratulations guys. That's great news." McGee nodded, chuckling as Tony puffed his chest out.

"We have a picture." He held out the grainy image and pointed. "Look, that's my little princess."

"Who says that we are having a girl, Tony?"

"My gut." He shrugged. "Would you like a baby sister, Anton?"

"Yeah!"

"Tony, do not get his hopes up. You might have a baby brother, Anton."

"Both!" He grinned and everyone had to stifle laughs.

"No. One or the other." Ziva smiled up at him.

"I be big brother!"

"You're gonna be a great big brother." Abby said. "Oh, does this mean that I get to knit another babygrow?!"

* * *

The loud rumble shook the building. She reflexively coiled up next to his warm body, trembling. She heard a scrambling sound and a flash of light momentarily lit up the room, revealing her son's pale face in the doorway. "Ima." She sat up slightly and Anton ran over to her, clambering up onto the bed and burying himself into her side.

"It is only thunder, Baby." She said as confidently as possible as another loud crack echoed around the room and she pulled him down so they were both clinging on to Tony for dear life. "Daddy will keep us safe."

"Will he now?" Tony asked sleepily, wrapping his arms around the two of them.

"Yes, I believe he will." Ziva smiled as he nuzzled his hair. Anton squealed slightly when another clap of thunder shattered the silence in the room. Rain started hammering down outside, pounding on the window and creating a relaxing rhythm. She calmed at the rain. She'd always liked rain – to her the rain symbolised hope.

"I'll always keep you safe. All three of you." He smiled, pulling his son and pregnant wife close, wrapping them in his arms and never wanting to ever have to let go of them.

* * *

"They should keep an eye on you, you're gonna be a great agent one day. Hey Gibbs, oh…" He stopped in his tracks and stared at the sight he was confronted with as the junior agent walked away, leaving the older man in the entrance of the squad room. He looked around, checking that the agent had brought him up to the correct floor. Everything looked right, it was definitely his son's desk, but it wasn't his son sat at it. Or it was and he just couldn't see him for the woman attached to his lips. But it couldn't have been, because this man wore a wedding band and his son was not married. He cast an appraising eye up and down the woman's back, watching as the man's hands roamed. She had a head of dark, curly hair and a good figure.

"What time are you getting home tonight?" He froze at the voice. He knew that accented voice. He'd been undercover with the woman who owned the exotic voice. And she had left, broken his son's heart.

"An' then duckies quack-quack-quack!" His head whipped up at the grateful distraction of a child's voice.

"Really? And what did Daddy do?"

"He go quack-quack-quack too!" The child in Bishop's arms squealed with laughter.

"Your daddy's funny isn't he." She smirked and looked up at the sound of a quiet, awkward cough. "Mr DiNozzo?!" Tony and Ziva leapt apart at Ellie's yelp and were frantically looking around for signs of his father.

"'Nozzo! An-Ton 'Nozzo!" Anton grinned proudly at his recitation of his name. For the past few weeks Tony, Ziva and the team had been going over what to do if he got lost. He started shouting out his address, muddling some of the words. Senior was confronted with his son's eyes as the little boy turned and looked at him.

"Dad?!"

"Son?!"

"Ima!"

"Ziva?!"

"Grab your gear!" Everyone turned to look at Gibbs as he walked in and froze. He retraced his steps and stared at the group.

"Not a great time, Boss."

"Tony!" Abby shrieked, running through the bullpen and throwing herself at Tony's father. "I heard you were in town! Oh, it's so good to see you, it's been so long!"

"Abby." He patted her back, stunned into speechlessness.

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

"DiNozzo, dead man's not gonna wait."

"He's dead, he's not going anywhere." Tony muttered.

"Bishop, McGee, grab your gear." He nodded. "Take the day if you want, DiNozzo. Oh, and Bishop?"

"Yes, Gibbs?"

"Leave Anton here." She nodded and placed the child down, letting him run over to Ziva, his little legs almost tripping over themselves, laughing when he was lifted off the floor again and spun in the air by his mother.

"Come on, Baby. We are going to give Daddy some space." She murmured, pressing a kiss to the crown of his head.

"Oh, no you don't." Tony snagged an arm around her waist, tethering her to him. "I need help."

"Well, we have always known that." She smiled, trying to lighten his mood that had suddenly plummeted, along with his confidence levels.

"I think I'll…just…um…I think I hear Major MassSpec beeping." Abby said, sensing the building tension and evacuating the room whilst she still had the chance.

"What's going on here, Junior?"

"Long story. Very long story. Um, see, Ziva left and…"

"I remember that part. You looked miserable." Ziva looked down at her shoes in shame.

"Yeah, anyway, when I went to Israel to try and bring her home we…she…I…" This wasn't the sort of conversation he wanted to be having with his father. "I mean it only happened three times."

"Four. It was four times. In the olive grove as well." Ziva pointed out.

"I was counting the olive grove." He frowned.

"We made love in the olive grove, and then you carried me through to the bedroom and we made love there, then I was crying and I ran through to the kitchen and broke the glass, then you were trying to convince me to go back, and then I cried some more, and then again in the bedroom, and then we slept and then just before you left…"

"Oh, I forgot those damn terracotta tiles in the sitting room." He frowned at the memory.

"You pulled all of the sofa cushions onto the floor, Tony. You were barely in contact with the terracotta tiles. Besides, you were on top." They were brought back to the conversation at hand by an embarrassed cough and both Tony and Ziva flushed scarlet.

"Forgot you were there, Dad." Tony-the-Younger smiled sheepishly. "Anyway, it was only for one night, and then I came back and I was miserable, as you said, but little did I know that half way across the world Ziva was wandering round pregnant with my kid."

"You are so romantic." Ziva looked up at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I know." He nodded. "So anyway, August sort of time, I go over to England for a case, and turns out the guy I'm interviewing is living with Ziva. Of course, I don't find this out until I've been there a few days, and then I see her and she has this kid with her and the kid looks like me, but he's got darker skin and hair, and my hair's not curly. And then there was a bit of a commotion, which doesn't really matter, and I had to go back to America, but I promised to call and visit, and I did, and then, uh, I proposed and we kinda eloped, sort of, and then we both came back here and I have a new apartment and we live there together and it's uh, it's really great."

"And you didn't feel that you could tell me that you have a wife and son? All it would take is a phone call."

Tony winced slightly. "Gibbs and Abby and everyone here only found out a week or so ago. We didn't tell anybody, Dad."

"His name is Anton. He is going to be three on the 18th June." Ziva smiled, readjusting Anton on her hip so her father-in-law could see him properly. "Anton, this is your Grandpa."

"Like Ducky and Gibbsy?"

"Sort of, yes. He is Daddy's daddy."

"Anthony DiNozzo, Senior." He held his hand out and the child shook it.

"Daddy Anthony DiNozzo."

"He is." Senior nodded, his eyes dropping to Ziva's stomach. Somehow in all of the confusion and shock he had missed the bump.

"Oh, and er, number two's on the way, due end of August." Tony grinned.

"Congratulations. I always knew DiNozzos had great DNA."

"So, er, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I was actually just passing through. I'm on a plane to Berlin in an hour, I just wanted to see how you were doing. I'm hopefully staying for the next couple of months."

"Oh. I was going to say, we were planning on having bolognaise for dinner, if you wanted to join us, but you can't, so… Never mind. There's always next time, hey Dad." He put on a forced smiled and Ziva leaned into his side comfortingly.

"Well, I best be going. Congratulations, on everything. You're looking as beautiful as ever, Ziva." He grinned and winked before turning around and walking out.

"That was…weird. And uncomfortable." Tony ran a hand over his chin and pulled his wife and son into a hug.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I just…I don't know…my father…"

"I know. I have been there." She nuzzled her face into his neck.

"Ziva, can you promise me something?"

"Anything."

"Never let me turn out like him."

"Tony." She pulled away and looked into his eyes. "You do not need me to promise that. You are so different from him that you never could turn out like him."

"But…"

"No buts. I would not love you if you were anyone but the man you are." She pressed her lips softly to his cheek. "Come on, Gibbs said you can have the day off. We can go to the park."

"Duckies!"

"And watched the duckies." He nodded, smiling as he picked his bag up and took his wife's hand, heading towards the elevator, the park and the duckies.

* * *

"Ima?" Anton looked up at his mother as she folded the laundry.

"Yes, Baby?"

He patted her bump. "How did baby get in your tummy?" She froze. They had discussed how they were going to answer this question. They were going to sit Anton down and explain the basics when he asked. But then, would Tony really do that? No, he would probably chicken out and palm this job on to her. Well, if she got there first then he would have no-one to pass the task onto.

"How about you ask Daddy that question when we go and visit him later?"

"Okay." He nodded and toddled off, content that his question would be answered as soon as they visited the Navy Yard. Ziva sighed in relief and leaned back on the sofa, smirking when she realised that Tony was going to have the honours of explaining. She'd explain next time.

* * *

"Daddy?"

"Yeah, Bud?" Tony asked, Anton sat on his lap as he typed up the cold case file that was being put into the system. Ziva had mysteriously disappeared off to Abby's lab almost as soon as they had arrived, leaving him with his son. He reached for the coffee that had been sat untouched on his desk since he had arrived and took a sip.

"How did baby get into Ima's tummy?"

Tony choked and spluttered the, thankfully cold, liquid down his shirt at the child's innocent question. He had been expecting something like 'What's for dinner?' or 'Can we go and see the duckys?'. He looked around desperately for some excuse as to not answer him when a bright idea struck him. If he told Anton to ask Ziva he wouldn't have to explain it. He would get out of it. "Er, I think that's a question you should ask Ima."

"I did." He looked up and frowned. "She said I ask you."

"She did, did she? I shall have to have a word with your Ima." He groaned, just as McGee walked in and sat down. "Why don't you ask Uncle McGee? He'll know the answer." He whispered to his son. "Hey, McGee, I just spilt my coffee, I need to go and change. And I have to go and talk to Ziva. Can I leave Anton with you for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure." McGee smiled. Tony dashed out of the room and McGee frowned. "How are you this morning, Anton?"

"I cool." He nodded and wandered over. "Gwee?"

"Yes?"

"I got question. You answer it?"

"I'll do my best." He shrugged and smiled at the little boy who was pouting at his feet.

"Ima has baby in her tummy, yes?"

"Yes…" He could see where this was going and he really didn't want to have to be the one to answer this question. Why couldn't Anton have asked him about computers, or investigations, or how to deal with Tony's movie references?

"How did baby get in there?"

"Er, um…well, see…why don't you ask your Daddy that question?"

"I did. He said ask Ima and I did so he said ask Gwee." Anton stuck his bottom lip out, confused as to why nobody was willing to explain such a simple question to him.

"Well..." He went through his list of people that Anton could ask. "You could always ask Auntie Ellie."

"Will Lellie tell me?"

"Yeah. She should do." McGee nodded. "Come on, let's go find her." He picked the child up and carried him through to the break room. "Ah, Ellie. I need to hit the head and Tony left Anton with me. You couldn't just take him so I can go to the bathroom for me, could you?" He put his best urgent face on.

"I don't see why not. I always have time for my favourite little boy." She smiled as McGee sat him on the chair next to her.

"Thanks." Tim smiled before running off, in the direction of Abby's lab.

Anton peered up at the screen of her laptop. "What you doing?"

"I'm typing up a report. It's really boring." She said in a stage whisper, making the boy giggle. "What are you doing?"

"I got problem." His brow furrowed.

"You do? Oh, what's wrong?"

"No one will answer my question. Not Ima or Daddy or Gwee."

"Well, maybe they don't have the answer?"

"But they got to have answer!" His face crumpled and he waved his arms in the air.

"Okay, why don't we see if I can answer your question?"

"You pwomise?"

"I'll answer it if I have the answer. I promise."

"How did baby get into Ima's tummy?" He stared at her intently.

"Well…" She started, then stopped. If Tony and Ziva hadn't told him then there was surely a reason. She couldn't risk their trust in her. Anton burst into tears and climbed off of the chair, realising that Ellie wasn't going to tell him either. He stomped his feet before turning and running down the corridor. "Wait! Anton! Wait!" She leapt up and followed him, trying to catch up. "Wow, you're fast for a two year old." She ran into the squad room, attracting a lot of attention, hot on Anton's heels.

"Bishop, what's going on?"

"Uh, I… I have to go and give a file to Abby." She nodded as Anton flung himself into Gibbs arms. She left as quickly as she had arrived, hitting the button in the elevator as the doors closed in slow motion. It took an age for the elevator to arrive in the lab, but as soon as it did she ran out. "McGee!" She halted when four guilty faces turned to look at her. "You set me up!"

"Well…not exactly. I just told Anton that you were more likely to answer his question than I was."

"And we did the same." Ziva said guiltily, turning back to the screen showing the squad room. "I did not want him to get upset."

"Hey, it's okay. Gibbs will calm him down, then we can explain it to him together." Tony said, taking a handful of popcorn from the bowl on Abby's table. Ziva slapped his hand away.

"This is not the time for you to be eating."

"Sorry."

"You will be, DiNozzo." Gibbs voice made all five heads whip round. He carried Anton in his arms, his little red face contorted in confusion and tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Anton, Baby, Ima and Daddy did not mean to upset you." Ziva stretched her arms out and Gibbs transferred the child over.

"Want know how Ima!"

"I know you do Baby." They walked through to the office area of Abby's lab and she sat in Abby's desk chair. Everyone gathered round and Gibbs smirked as Tony and Ziva fumbled for the correct words.

"See, Buddy, when an Ima and Daddy love each other very much…"

"Very, very much…"

"Thank you, Abs. When an Ima and Daddy love each other very, very much…"

"Like you and Ima?"

"Just like me and Ima…" He trailed off, uncertain of what to say next.

"Well, then they might decide that they want a baby." Ellie jumped in.

"Exactly. And so they have a very special hug."

"A very, very special hug."

"Abs." Tony warned.

"Sorry."

"And that makes the baby start to grow."

He paused and considered this. "But how does baby get in tummy?"

"The baby's already kinda in there. And the very special hug just kinda warms it up and makes it grow." Abby smiled, proud of her contribution.

"Do I have babies in my tummy?"

"No. Only Imas have babies."

"Oh. Lellie, you have babies in your tummy?"

Ellie froze. "Er, yeah. But Jake and I haven't warmed the baby up yet."

"You not love him enough?" Anton frowned, confused.

"Anton!" Ziva cried and blushed. "Sorry. You do not say things like that."

"No, we do love each other, we just aren't ready to have a baby." She smiled sheepishly.

"Oh. Why?"

"Because a baby's a big thing to think about." Tony sighed.

"No it's not. Baby small."

"But a baby takes a lot of looking after and costs a lot of money, so it takes a lot of thinking about." Tim explained.

Anton nodded, content. For about 30 seconds. "How does the very special hug actuwally work?"

Tony groaned and started whimpering. "That's a question for when you're a bit older." Gibbs chuckled, picking him up and ruffling his hair.

* * *

Anton yawned. "Okay, Buddy. Bedtime."

"But I not tired." He yawned again as Tony carried him through to his room, Ziva following closely behind. He stood on the bed and Tony kissed the crown of his head before tilting forwards so Anton could do the same. "Night-night, Daddy."

"Night, Buddy."

Ziva walked over and pressed a kiss to his nose, making him chuckled, and he kissed her nose back. "Night-night, Ima."

"Lilah tov, Anton."

"Night-night, Baby." He pulled her pyjama top up to reveal the smooth skin of her bump and pressed a kiss to it. "Sleep tight." He whispered, kissing the baby one more time before plonking himself down on the bed. His parents smiled as he tried to tuck himself in and Tony had to help. "Storwy pwease?"

"Sure. What about?" Tony sat on the floor as Ziva perched on the edge of the bed.

"Hmmm." He thought for a moment. "Dwagon and 'nail."

"A dragon and a snail? I'll see what I can do." He scratched his head for a minute before grinning. "Got it! Okay, so, you ready?"

"Mmhm."

"You comfortable, Sweetcheeks?"

"Perfectly so."

"Then we'll begin. Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Anton. Now, Anton was playing in the park with the Ducks."

"Quack, quack, quack."

"Just like that, and he found a magic leaf. He knew it was magic because it was all glittery and sparkly and also his Ima told him it was magic and everything that Ima says is true. Most of the time, anyway. So he picked up the magic leaf and all of a sudden he was in this place that he didn't recognise. There were stones the size of his bed and strange plants with flowers as big as the kitchen. And all of a sudden there was a strange humming sound and a big helicopter came down. But it wasn't actually a helicopter, it was a dragonfly, and it had four big wings and it landed in the middle of the road. Anton climbed on it's back and it took off, and it flew really high. He could see all of the other children in the park and the ducks and he could see his Daddy and his Ima and his Uncle McGee and his Aunties Abby and Ellie, and his Grandpa Gibbs. And then it flew higher, and it flew past a really big aeroplane, which was really loud and Anton had to cover his ears. And then they went even higher, through the clouds and higher than the tallest mountains, and as high as the stars and the moon. The man on the moon waved at Anton, because even though he was so small, he could still see him because he had really good eyesight so he could see all of the people on earth. And then Anton started getting sleepy and so the dragonfly flew back down and landed back in the park. But he was still really, really small and he didn't know how to grow back to the right height again, which made him sad because he started to miss his Ima and Daddy. All of a sudden there was a roar and he looked up to see a giant snail, all slimy, with silvery skin, looming over him. At first he was scared, but, after finishing his mouthful of lettuce leaf, the snail told him that the best way to grow taller was to eat lettuce leafs, which was what he was doing and that was why he was so much taller than Anton. So Anton found some lettuce leafs and started munching and crunching on them and all of a sudden he shot up like a beanstalk, making his Ima jump because he had been lost and then all of a sudden he was standing next to her, two inches taller than he had been when he had disappeared. And so, Anton took his Ima's hand, and he took his Daddy's hand, and together they walked home, and as they walked home Anton retold his story, making certain to wave to the man in the moon before he went to bed that night. The end."

"'Nother." He said sleepily and Tony chuckled.

"No, Buddy. Not tonight. We'll have another story tomorrow."

"Sleep well, Baby." Ziva smoothed his hair back and smiled as his eyes fluttered shut for the night, watching as he quickly succumbed to sleep.

* * *

"And this basement makes the perfect games room. The owners have recently had it done up, so it's very modern with new fittings. There's a small bathroom down here as well. The furniture's all built in down here, apart from the pool table, which the owners don't want any more. This does mean that nothing can be rearranged to your own personal taste, but it doesn't mean you can't add your own touch." The estate agent said as they walked down the stairs into the subterranean room. A bar and pool table stood at one end of the long room, and at the other a large screen was set into the wall along with a hi-fi system. A wrap-around sofa was built into a waist-high brick wall and a hanging wicker chair flanked either end. The walls were a navy blue and the carpets were deep grey. Spotlights illuminated the room, dimmed down to optimum movie watching level, and LED strips lined the skirting boards, softly changing colours. "The house would be at a higher price, but they've had trouble marketing the basement because the furniture is not moveable, so everything is based on what the previous owners wanted and liked."

"I like it." Tony grinned like a child on Christmas.

"Of course you do, My Little Hairy Butt." Ziva sniggered, leaning her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

The estate agent grinned like a Cheshire cat. "And, if you come through here, my favourite room of the house. It's been kept a secret, because the owners designed and built the house, and they didn't want someone buying the house if they weren't going to appreciate all of the rooms. Nobody else has shown an interest in the house once they realised that the furniture down here is all built in, so, nobody has seen this room yet." She grinned, her hand on a frosted glass sliding door, hidden behind the stairs. She pushed the door open and a dark tiled room, illuminated by the same coloured LED strips and tiny pinprick lights in the ceiling to imitate stars. The room itself housed a long pool with soft lights glowing from its depths. Four pool recliners were angled, two at each end of the tiled area, towards the centre of the pool. "There are lights on the walls which make the room more practical for having children down here, or you can keep it to your own sanctuary."

"It is perfect." Ziva whispered in Tony's ear and he grinned, turning his head slightly to press a soft kiss to her lips and brushing a gentle hand over her bump.

"I'll give you a while to talk it over. You can take another look around; I'll give you as long as you need. I'll be in the garden when you're ready." The estate agent smiled and headed back upstairs. Tony took Ziva's hand and grinned.

"I like it."

"You just like the basement." She laughed.

"Well, what's your favourite part?" He said as they walked up the stairs into the open plan downstairs area. Everything was made of maple wood, stainless steel and glass, with white and cream soft furnishings. A large, simple sitting room backed onto an open dinning room separated from the kitchen by a breakfast bar. Floor to ceiling glass windows lined the back wall, with a sliding door leading out to a deck and then onto a large expanse of green grass surrounded by tall trees.

"I like the master bedroom. It is the perfect size for a nice, big, Californian King. And the big en-suite with the big bathtub and the large shower room."

"Now, if I said that, you would roll your eyes and slap the back of my head." He looked at her and she grinned.

"Ah, yes, but I can get away with saying it because you love me so much."

"That may be true." He laughed.

"I also like the attic office." The office she referenced had four sloping walls coming to an apex, with skylights in each, flooding the room with sunlight.

"Do either of us really need an office? You don't work and I don't bring my work home with me." He smirked as her face fell slightly. "I guess we could always convert it into something more useful. It could be a gym, or a play room, or whatever we want it to be. It could make quite a cool quiet room, for reading and stuff."

"I like that idea." She grinned. "There is of course one problem, Tony." She looked up at him.

"And what's that?"

"Well, that radius around the navy yard that you drew on the map…"

"Yes?"

"That gave the boundaries of how far we could move…"

"Yes?"

"It crosses the end of the road. We are about 100 yards out of range." She smiled and he laughed.

"I do not think that 100 yards will kill us." He pressed his lips to hers and grinned. "Can you picture us here?"

"Yes. I can see Anton and a little brother or sister running around in the garden, and I can see you in the basement and…"

"What?" He tilted his head in confusion as she trailed off.

"We cannot have a basement. You will start building a boat."

"Oh, Ziva…" He chuckled, wrapping his arms tightly around her and pressing numerous kisses to the top of her head. "I love you so much." He laughed and planted a chaste kiss to her lips. "When have I ever shown the slightest desire to build a boat?"

"I do not know, but I do not want you to start."

"I won't. I promise."

* * *

"I fwee! I fwee!"

"No, Bud, you're very expensive." Tony groaned as he rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head to block out the child's excited cries.

"Daddy, I fwee!"

"Daddy heard you the first time, but it's…" He poked his head out to look at the clock. "0415h. Daddy doesn't get up until at least 0430h."

"Daddy!" He shouted, climbing up on the bed and standing on Tony's chest.

"OWW! Okay, Buddy, I'm awake! Why can't you wake Ima up instead?" He sat up, being careful to catch Anton when he tumbled backwards.

"Because he woke me up quarter of an hour ago." Tony looked to the doorway where Ziva was lounging, her arms folded and a sly smile on her face. "I saved you from waking up at 0400h. I think you owe me for that."

"Well, by about 1800h tonight, he'll be asleep, and then…" He grinned wolfishly at her and she shook her head, walking over and giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Good morning, beautiful."

"Good morning, Mon Petit Pois."

"Good morning, Anton!" He jumped up, feeling left out. "I fwee!"

"I think we know, Baby." Ziva laughed. She clapped her hands together. "Breakfast time."

"Pancakes!"

"Birthday pancakes!" Tony grinned, leaping out of bed and grabbing Anton much like a football, making him howl with laughter as his father jogged down the stairs of their new house with him under his arm.

"Please be careful, Tony. I am not going to be spending the day in hospital because one of you got hurt." She took the stairs slightly slower. She stepped into the kitchen to find Tony already starting to make the pancake mixture and a mess. She sighed. There was no point in even trying to tell him to be more careful, to try not to get the flour everywhere.

* * *

"It's Play-Doh!" Abby said excitedly as Anton peeled the wrapping paper away.

"What is Play-Doh?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Ziva like she was insane.

"You've had a kid for three years and you don't know what Play-Doh is?" McGee raised his eyebrows. "It's the best thing ever!"

"It smells really good!" Abby grinned. "That's why I got it for him."

"I love the smell of Play-Doh in the morning!" Tony laughed.

"But what is it?"

"It's this soft, squishy modelling putty sort of stuff."

"It was originally sold as wall paper cleaner. The two men who marketed it wanted to call it 'Rainbow Modelling Compound'." Ducky said, adding his usual snippets of trivia.

"Every child has to have Play-Doh at some point in their life." Ellie shrugged.

"It's true. Kelly made me a star out of the stuff once." Gibbs smiled at the memory.

"Colourful!" He squealed in delight as he inspected the colour of every pot. All twenty of them.

"Anton, can you say thank you to Auntie Abby please?"

"Tank you, Absy." He ran across the middle of the bullpen to where she was sat on the floor and hugged her. He then ran back to Ziva and sat back in his position in the circle of people sat on the floor. "Gwee next!"

"Ok. Happy birthday little man." He handed over the brightly wrapped gift and smiled. Ziva gasped when he pulled the paper off. There sat a stack of books in Hebrew. "I was thinking, you said something a couple of weeks ago about him learning Hebrew, and what better way to learn than children's books. And this way Tony can learn too." He smiled. "I asked the people in the apartment next to mine what books their son liked when he was three, and found them in Hebrew." Ziva went through them all, reading the titles to Anton. Tony managed to figure out the titles from the cover illustrations. "The Gruffalo, The Tiger Who Came For Tea, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider, Winnie the Pooh, We're Going On A Bear Hunt and Where The Wild Things Are. Thank you, McGee, they are wonderful." She smiled. "Anton, can you say thank you to Uncle McGee?"

"Tank you, Gwee! Gwampa Ducky next!"

"There you go."

"Tank you." Anton smiled as the present, wrapped in rubber duck wrapping paper, was passed around the circle. A children's doctors play-kit.

"Ah, Ducky, you're already trying to mould our child into a doctor." Tony laughed.

"It's never too soon to start getting the future generations interested in what they want to be when they're older. Of course, many children change their minds by the time they reach university, and even then some haven't made up their minds, but some carry their ambitions with them from the day they have their first toy train or stethoscope."

"Tank you Ducky."

"I guess that just leaves me." Gibbs said. He'd spoken about his gift with Tony and Ziva already. He stood up and walked over, sitting down next to the birthday boy. "Now, your present from me is too big to wrap up, and it hasn't been built yet, because I'm gonna need your help, but I'm going to build you a tree house in your garden." He said and Anton's eyes lit up.

"A big one?"

"A really big one. And it can have lots of levels and a rope swing and…" The group watched as Gibbs got excited about his project. It was the first time any of them had ever seen him so…enthusiastic as he described his plans to the boy.

* * *

"Oh, this place is beautiful, Ziva!" Abby grinned as she walked into the airy room. The pale light of the morning streamed through the glass, lighting up the entire room. She could see Gibbs, Ducky and Tony, with Anton on his shoulders, through the back windows, setting up a barbeque for the evening. "He seems excited." She pointed as Tony laughed.

"Yes." Ziva sighed dreamily. "He is waiting for McGee to turn up before he shows everyone the basement. I can foresee there being many 'Men's nights' down there." She started guiding her down the stairs that were positioned under the stairs going up to the bedrooms and attic. Abby gasped as she looked around.

"This is so cool! I bet Tony loves it down here!"

"You have not seen the best bit." She led her to the swimming pool. "I like turning the LED strips off and just having the stars on the ceiling. It is very romantic."

"Haha, this is gonna be such a loud house."

"What?" Ziva looked at her, confused, as they returned upstairs to answer the knock on the door.

"Well, with such a romantic room, and four bedrooms, you're going to have a room spare…"

"No, Abby. We like it as it is. Baby will make four, and four is good." She shook her head. "Please do not give Tony any ideas." She opened the door and smiled as Vance stood with Kayla and Jared.

"Ziva. You look well."

"As do you. And you two have grown up so much! Come on in. Gibbs, Ducky and Tony are in the garden if you want to go through."

"You and Agent DiNozzo have a beautiful house." Vance nodded as they all walked out onto the deck.

"We like it here." Tony said, grinning as he swung Anton down from his shoulders. "Once McGee and Palmer get here, we can start on painting the nursery, since that's why everyone is here."

"And here I thought it was for Gibbs famous steak." Vance smiled as he watched Jared take a ball out from behind his back and walking down the steps to the grass. Anton followed him, curious to this new boy that was in his back garden. Kayla joined them and Jared tossed her the American Football. She gave it a little throw to Anton, who stumbled but still managed to catch it. He put all of his effort to throw it and Jared dove to catch it, laughing as the game continued. Leon felt a lot calmer than he had in a while as he saw his children laugh and play with Anton.

There was another knock on the door and Ziva turned to get it when Tony wrapped his arms around her torso, ensnaring her. "I'll get it. Please sit down."

"I do not need to sit down."

"But I want you to." He pressed a kiss to her cheek before walking through the house. He walked back through moments later with the rest of the party. McGee and Delilah came through first, followed by Ellie and Jake, and then Breena and Jimmy, Victoria held in his arms.

"Sorry, we would have been here sooner, but Jimmy got us lost." McGee rolled his eyes.

"I told you, if you had let me drive then we wouldn't have had the problem." He held his hands up in defence.

"But it was my car, Jimmy." Ellie cried.

"Hey, hey, no arguments. We're having a good day today." Tony said. "Now, we've got a lot to get done, so we need to get going with the painting." He pressed his lips to Ziva. "You're not painting."

"But Tony!" They'd had this argument for the past week.

"No. The paint isn't good for Baby." He brushed her hair out of her eyes and smiled as she relented. "Thank you."

"Delilah and I are staying here with Victoria anyway." Breena smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll stay too." Kayla said, climbing up the stairs. Jared bounded up behind her with Anton handing off his back like a monkey.

"The little dude's cool." Anton squealed with laughter as the older boy ran down the steps again and started doing laps up and down the garden.

"Just be careful!" Vance warned and Tony shook his head.

"Anton's fine. He grew up with Ziva's driving." They started heading inside, all but Breena, Delilah, Ziva, Kayla and the two children.

"When are you due?" Delilah asked as they arranged themselves on the outdoor seating.

"Next month. August 24th." She sighed as Anton crawled onto her lap and pressed a hand to her stomach. She chuckled and moved his hand to the other side and Anton grinned when the baby kicked. He took Victoria's wrist and carefully guided her hand to sit next to his.

"Ima has baby in tummy." He pouted when Victoria jumped back, shocked by the kick. "Not scary." He took the little girl's hand and moved it back to his mother's stomach, trying to push her taut t-shirt up to display her golden skin. Ziva helped, rolling the fabric up, and smiled proudly as he pressed a kiss to where his hand had been. "Anton love Baby." He grinned, eliciting 'Aww's and coos from everyone who wasn't his mother.

"Just like his father. He knows just how to get all the women to fall in love with him."

* * *

Laughter filled the air of the warm summer evening, along with the smells of the barbeque and the gentle yellow glow of fairy lights tangled in the branches of the trees that surrounded the garden. The two children slept peacefully on the outdoor sofa, their heads together and their feet at opposite ends of the chair. Their small hands were clasped together, not letting go to allow their parents separate them.

"Meet the future Mrs DiNozzo." Tony chuckled quietly as he and Jimmy watched their offspring snore. "You've done a good job, Autopsy Gremlin."

"Well, I don't think you've done so badly yourself. He's a great kid."

"So is Victoria. One very beautiful little girl. You'll have to keep her away from the boys."

"Oh, don't worry. Breena suggested asking Ziva for some self defence lessons for Victoria when she's older." Jimmy smiled.

"I'm sure she'll be honoured that you thought of her for it. And she'll probably be happy to comply."

"Well, we better be getting home." Leon said as both Kayla and Jared groaned.

"Aw, but Dad, can't we just stay for a little bit longer. Tony hasn't started doing his film impressions yet!"

"That's exactly why we are leaving now, Jared. It's late and you've got school tomorrow."

"Fine. Hey, Ziva, can you tell Anton that I'll teach him to build a go-cart the next time I see him, because he wanted to know how and I don't think I told him I would." Jared asked.

"Sure." She smiled. "Now go on to bed. Your dad is right, you have school tomorrow and you will be falling asleep in your lessons if you do not get some sleep now."

"Thanks for having us." They waved as they went through the house, letting themselves out so as not to pull Tony and Ziva away from the party.

"She's a great mum, isn't she Timmy." Abby sighed and watched as Tony stood together, wrapped in one another's arms.

"Yeah. They're great parents."

"You know, I remember, oh, about seven years ago, you and I made a little bet." She grinned as they sat down with Delilah.

"What bet?"

"Uh, I don't know. I can't think of what you're talking about, Abby." McGee shook his head. He knew exactly what bet she was talking about.

"I said that Ziva would be a great mum, and you disagreed. I do believe you owe me fifty bucks now."

"Wha…? That was ages ago! I thought that was nullified!"

"Well, you never cancelled the bet."

"But Ziva left!"

"And now she's back and she's a great mum." Delilah stated. "How could you think she wouldn't be?"

"You didn't know her back then. She was…Ziva David…she wasn't really mum-material."

"Abby thought she was." Both women looked at him with raised eyebrows and he stuttered, relenting and pulling out his wallet when he realised that they weren't going to back down.

* * *

"She's beautiful." He smiled, leaning over and capturing his wife's lips softly in his. "Just like her mother. Scooch over." She raised her eyebrows at him and he flinched. "Please?"

"Of course, my Little Hairy Butt." She grinned and carefully eased herself as far across as possible, making sure not to jostle the small, sleeping infant in her arms. He climbed up next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Good job." He kissed her temple before leaning down and pressing a light kiss to his daughter's forehead. "Y'know, I think I'm gonna miss your bump." He sighed and allowed his eyes to wander up and down her body. "We may have to do something about that."

She frowned at him and tilted her head before her eyes widened in realisation. "No." She shook her head. "No. Two is enough."

"You think?"

"Right now I do, yes. I have _just_ gone through ten hours of labour, Tony. The answer is no. For now." She held a finger up when he started to protest. "I do not advise you argue."

"I'm going to follow your advice because, well, you have that little scary glint in your eyes that tells me that if I don't then I'm gonna be sleeping on the couch for the next week."

"I was thinking more you would be the one to wake up and take care of our little angel during the night for the next two weeks." She shrugged and leaned her head on his shoulder. "But then I realised that I actually quite liked the night-time feeds with Anton." She smiled wistfully.

"Really? Why?"

"I do not know. I think…it was always so quiet, so peaceful. I could sit up and watch him sleep for hours. Still can." She looked down as the child stirred. "And it reminded me of late night cases, calls from Gibbs. I used to wonder what you were doing whilst I was feeding him. I would wonder if you were working a case or on a date with some girl or if you were thinking of me."

"Always. I was always thinking about you. Every day. Every night." He smiled, pulling her closer to him and stroking the soft cheek of their little girl, her blue eyes fluttering open to stare lazily at him. "She really is beautiful."

"Where is Anton?"

"Waiting room with Gibbs and everyone. He was asleep in Ellie's arms when I last checked."

"He likes her." She chuckled.

"Yeah. Jake's got some competition."

"Competing with a DiNozzo. A hard task." She laughed. "We should probably tell them, yes?"

"I guess. They've been waiting out there for most of the day." He shrugged. "You want me to go get them?"

"I want you to stay here with your arms around me and our daughter in my arms like this forever. But I want Anton here too, so I guess you will need to move." She sighed and snuggled herself deeper into the warmth of his arms.

"If you want Anton, you're gonna have to let me move." He chuckled.

"Tony, the last time I held a child in my arms, lying in a hospital bed, you were not there." Her voice quavered and she closed her eyes to try and bar the tears that threatened to fall. "I do not want to be alone again."

"Oh, Ziva…you never have to be alone again. I promise you I'll be by your side. 'Till the very end." He captured her lips in a tender kiss. "Give me five minutes and I'll bring the rest of our family in. I love you."

"Hm. I love you too." She watched as he slid off the bed and walked through the door. "That is your Daddy." She played with the infant's tiny hand. "He is a very good man and you and your brother are very lucky to have him." The door opened again and Tony came through, Anton sat on his shoulders.

"Ima! Ima! Ima!" He started pounding on his father's head.

"Y'know, Buddy, what with you and Grandpa Gibbs hitting my head, I really am surprised that I don't have brain damage."

"Maybe you do, DiNozzo." Gibbs walked in behind him, followed by the rest of the group. "Would explain why you seem incapable of following orders."

"How would we be able to tell, I mean, with anyone else it would be obvious, but with Tony…"

"If I were you, McGee, I would not finish that sentence." Ziva threatened.

"Of course, we could use his choice of wife as evidence to prove that he most certainly is not brain damaged." Tim quickly recovered. "She's beautiful."

"My wife or my daughter?"

"Both." Gibbs smiled, walking over and pressing a kiss to Ziva's forehead. "Does she have a name?"

Ziva nodded to Tony and he grinned. "Well, since Anton has English and Italian names, and Ziva told me that I could name her, I have spent the past few months looking at baby names. I feel like we should split their heritage half and half. Anton has names from my side of the family, so our baby girl is going to have names from Ziva's side." He smiled and looked at his daughter. "I suggested Tali, but Ziva disagreed."

"I would not be able to explain to her what happened to her Aunt Tali, and although Tali would have been honoured, I could not do it. I could not name her and worry that she would suffer the same fate." Her voice cracked as the tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Hey, I know. It's okay. It's alright." He wiped her tears away and climbed onto the bed next to her again, this time with Anton on his lap. "When I was looking at baby names I became so interested with their meanings. I mean, who could know that names could mean so much. There were a couple that I really, really liked though, and that Ziva likes."

"Tony." Abby was getting impatient. "I want to know what you named your baby girl!"

"Patience, Abs." He chuckled. "Auntie Abby needs to learn some patience, doesn't she?" He took his daughter's tiny hand in his. "Aviva means springtime. Esther means hidden. Esther was also a very beautiful woman."

"She saved Mordecai and the Jewish. That is why we celebrate Purim." Ziva sighed softly in contentment and rested her head on Tony's shoulder. "I remember my mother telling me Esther's story."

"Aviva Esther DiNozzo."

"I like it." Ziva smiled and yawned.

"How about you, Buddy? Do you like your sister's name?"

"She look funny. She all pink."

"She is, isn't she. I'll bet you looked like that too when you were born."

"You were." Ziva smiled at his shocked, horrified expression.

"Can I touch?" He leaned over and extended his arm, waiting for his father's permission.

"Sit very still on Daddy's lap, Anton, and you can hold her." She said and he all of a sudden wriggled to get comfortable and settled down. Tony lifted his daughter out of Ziva's arms and cradled her so Anton was trapped between his chest and his arms.

"Gentle, gentle, gentle, Bud. She's very delicate."

"Am I dedicate?"

"Not as delicate as Viva is."

"Viva?" Ziva raised her eyebrows at him and he gulped, cowering slightly behind Anton.

"Er…yeah."

"She has been named for less than ten minutes and you are already shortening her name?"

"Well, I…you're gonna kill me, aren't you?"

"No. I will not kill you. Maim you, maybe, but not kill." She grinned, leaning her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm around him and Anton, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her son's head and smiling down at her baby girl. She flicked her eyes up to where the rest of her family were standing and felt, for possibly the first time in her life, whole: complete.

* * *

Moonlight streamed through the window and bathed the room in a pale light. She was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. She could only sit on the edge of their bed and stare at the sleeping girl in the bassinette. Every so often she would squirm slightly, rub her face with a mittened hand or clench and unclench her fist. She felt her husband's weight shift behind her on the bed so he was kneeling behind her. "You can't sit and watch her all night. She won't disappear." He gently massaged her shoulders and she leaned back into his body, revelling in the warmth.

"She will need feeding in half an hour. I will stay awake until she has been fed."

"You need your sleep too, Ziva." He rubbed her back. "If you won't sleep then at least lay back here." She nodded and shuffled back, curling into his side. Her head nestled onto his shoulder and he rubbed calming circles on her back. Her eyes fluttered closed and her breathing slowed until she was snoring lightly. He knew the nightmares had been bad since they had come back from the hospital, but he didn't know why. He suspected that it was related to Anton's birth, her fear that she would end up alone, this time with two children. He watched as she slept, enchanted once again by the innocence and vulnerability that softened her face in sleep. He suspected that it was what had originally started tipping the balance from lust to love, all those years ago when they had been undercover. He had spent half the night watching her sleep, this exotic, violent, dangerous woman, and such peace had settled across her features, features that were usually tight with the burden of all of the things she had seen and done. He had spent a long time after that, years in fact, trying to coax that serenity out whilst she was awake too, because it filled him with a strange, overwhelming feeling of joy every time he saw it. It was always very fleeting, and never complete, but sometimes, on occasion, she would fully let go of the tensions that bound her to the ground. Those occasions had been becoming more and more frequent, until Eli died, and then it was like she reverted back to the old Ziva, the Ziva he had met after Kate died. Except he still trusted her, and his feelings were so much more on the side of love than lust. And then she disappeared off to Israel, and then dropped off the map completely after their night together. Until he found her in London, almost a year before their daughter was born. Aviva started crying and he carefully moved so he didn't wake his wife. He quietly walked to the bassinette at the end of the bed and scooped the child up, cradling her in his arms. "Hush now, we're not going to wake Ima. She needs her sleep." He whispered and carried her downstairs to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and plucked out a prepared bottle of breast milk, almost dropping it twice before he managed to heat it up.

"Daddy, Viva woke me up." Anton yawned as he sat himself at the table.

"Okay, well, we're gonna be real quiet now because Ima's sleeping." He smiled wearily at his son. "Come on." They carefully trudged sleepily up the stairs, Tony always keeping behind Anton to ensure he didn't tumble, and crept into the master bedroom. Tony sat down, propping himself up with the pillows. Anton climbed up and curled up next to him and yawned, quickly slipping back into a peaceful slumber. Tony fed his daughter in the moonlight; his wife and son curled up either side of him, and couldn't help but smile at how everything had fitted together so nicely. He couldn't help but think back to all the times, all the occasions, all the tragedies that had led to that point. If Kate had not died, Ziva would never have stood in front of him and interrogated him about phone-sex. If Director Morrow hadn't resigned, Jenny wouldn't have taken over. If Jenny hadn't slept with Gibbs in Paris, she wouldn't have had the hold over him that allowed Ziva to stay. If they hadn't been given their undercover assignment, he would not have spent half the night watching her sleep, and he would not have started falling in love with her, even if he didn't know it at the time. If Gibbs hadn't left, they wouldn't have grown so close, they wouldn't have spent the nights of the summer talking and laughing and getting to know one another. If Jenny hadn't assigned him to the La Grenouille case, he would not have developed feelings for Jeanne, and broken Ziva's heart in the process. If Jenny had not died, they would not have been separated and she would not have been partnered with Rivkin. If he had not killed Rivkin, she would not have been sent to Somalia, and Saleem would not have broken her so many times over until she lost the will to live, until she had prepared herself to die. If they had not rescued her from Somalia, she would have died, and Saleem would have continued to live, swilling Caf-Pow! and terrorising the world. If they hadn't been sent to Paris, they would not have shared a bed; he would not have had another chance to watch her sleep peacefully, not until Israel, for she hadn't slept peacefully at all in Berlin. If Eli had not been killed, she would not have gone on her revenge mission. If they had not resigned, she would not have gone back to Israel, gone into hiding. If he had not have found her, Anton would never have been conceived. If Gibbs had not sent him to London, he would not have met his son. He would not have married his wife. They would not have had their baby girl. Every cloud has its silver lining. His silver linings were his family. A year ago, all hope for a family had been lost, but then fate intervened. He got his happily ever after. He got his movie ending. He had the beautiful wife and the two children. A big house, with a big garden and an indoor pool. A job he liked and a boss that wasn't so bad, once you got to know him. He had everything he never thought he needed and everything he always wanted.

 **The house is actually based on a childhood friend's house. Her parents built it; they had their own company. Her mum was an architect and interior designer and her dad was a builder. Every room was built and designed to fit whomever lived in it. It was a nightmare to sell, because everything was personalised to how they wanted it.**

 **I was watching the episode 'Housekeeping' with Michael and Coté's commentary whilst writing some of this. I laugh every time I listen to it.**

 **I have noticed that as I read through my work, I can often tell which episode, or film, I was watching, or music I was listening to, as I wrote each section, although that might just be that my memory surrounding trivial things such as what people say, what I was doing at random times and general useless trivia is much stronger than my memory of the important things.**

 **This turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would. Oh, well. I put some of the shorter segments in to break it up, because there are a lot of big blocks of text with very little actually happening except thinking. I remember being in an English lesson a good few years ago and we were reading 'A Christmas Carol' and one of the girls said "I hate Dickens because he always goes on and on and nothing actually happens, he just spends most of the book describing what everything looks like and what people are thinking." I quite like that about Dickens, but to my surprise most of the class, actually all of the class bar me, agreed with her. I never know whether my writing is too much like that and whether people would rather more things to actually happen. Tell me what you think, I value your opinion.**

 **Do we want more? I hope your answer is yes because I have one more chapter.**


	5. Brown and Green

**I am sorry. I have not updated this since the 27** **th** **of May. I am so, so sorry. That is nearly half a year… And what do I have to show for it? Very little.**

 **I have been trying really hard to get this done by Christmas though, and so here it is.**

Brown and Green

Darkness enveloped her as she gasped for the air that her body so desperately needed, sitting bolt upright, her palm pressed against the warm, hard surface it had been resting limply on during her sleep. It felt like she was drowning in the gritty sand of the desert she had been trapped in, the cold sweat that coated her skin one more thing to convince her she was still there, her legs bound to a chair and at her captor's mercy. Her heart pounded as she felt the body below her hand shift, the thump of a heart underneath cotton, and she applied pressure, hoping to silence whatever evil had his arm around her waist. The fingers on her hip fell away immediately and both her heartbeat and the one she was trying to muffle spiked as eyes connected, spheres of black onyx in the impenetrable darkness. And then realisation dawned. Just a nightmare. There was no desert. The restraints around her legs: the soft Egyptian cotton sheets. The body below her hand: her husband; trying to shift away to give her space, his eyes filled with a mix of panic and fear, love and sadness. Clouds parted and a swathe of moonlight bathed the room in a pale, watery light, illuminating the taut features of her face as she swallowed the tears that were engulfing her.

"You okay?" He asked quietly, concerned.

She gave a stiff nod, turning away from his imploring gaze. "I am going to take a shower. Go back to sleep." He watched as she slipped out of bed and walked to the bathroom, closing the door. He knew he would not be sleeping until she returned to bed, so he stood up, walking over to the tall windows facing the garden and leaning against the cool glass, pressing his forehead to it. If she were so desperate to shower after her nightmare, it meant there could only be one room she had been imagining, with one man, and it made him want to go back and kill Saleem himself. She had not woken from such a dream since she had been back in America, and it took him a moment to realise what triggered it. And then it clicked. The characters on the alarm clock on her nightstand glowed blue, the time flicking over to 00:00, the date rolling over. He knew they would never forget the date she had been brought home, held by Abby so tight her bones, made brittle by a lack of vitamin D, felt they would snap. Neither had known the date at the time, it was not until later that he had asked McGee how many days had passed since they had welcomed the orange walls of the squad room, their sanctuary. He did not know how Ziva had found out the date. Maybe it had been one of the nurses when she had stayed in the hospital for the few days they made compulsory. She had not spoken to any of them as she lay in the bed, even though they all visited. Nobody saw her eyes even open, though Tony at least was certain she had been awake as he sat and held her hand in silence, staring at her fragile form, her sallow face and the bruises that butterflied across her skin, punctuated with burns and cuts.

The shower stopped and he held his breath, straining his ears to see if he could hear the soft whimpers of her tears, hoping and praying that they would not be there to hear. But they were. He swallowed the lump of emotion that sat in his throat and knocked softly on the door, not waiting for the denial of permission as he walked in. She sat, curled in on herself, wet hair hiding her face, huddled in the corner of the shower, back pressed against the tiled walls as she sobbed into her hands. He slipped into the shower, not caring that his boxers and socks would get wet, and sat next to her, pulling her into his side and letting her head settle onto his chest. "You're safe now. You're home. You're okay."

* * *

"Why's Ima not 'wake yet?" Anton asked as he sat on his father's lap, watching his mother sleep. She was lying prone, her face turned towards her husband and son and her hair fanned out around her pillow. The covers were crumbled around her waist, her legs tangled in them and her back revealed to be bare.

"'Cause she's tired, Buddy. She didn't sleep well last night."

"Oh." He nodded, content with the answer for no more than ten seconds. "Why?"

"She had a bad dream." He sighed. "Don't wake her, Bud." Tony cautioned as the boy slipped off his lap to lie down between his parents, lacing his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. "Hey, don't go back to sleep, Buddy. You've got to get ready for nursery." He smirked as Anton batted his hand away. "I'm going to check on your sister so she doesn't wake Ima up when she wakes up. Stay here for me, and don't go back to sleep."

Anton wrinkled his nose when Tony's hand reached down and ruffled his hair, then rolled over to stare at his mother's creased face. She did not seem happy, which puzzled him because she was always happy. He sat himself up and peered at the white and pink crisscrossing lines on her back. He had noticed them before but never had he really considered why they were there. His fingertips barely brushed against one of the sliver lines that spiderwebbed across her skin when her eyes flashed wide open and her hand darted out and wrapped around his wrist.

It was Anton's scream that told Tony something was wrong. He placed Aviva, who had just woken, back into her cot and hurried through to the master bedroom to see his wife sat bolt upright, her breaths heavy and tension radiating off her in waves. His son was curled on the opposite side of the bed, crying. He was uncertain of where to go first, who needed him more. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"I jus' wanded kno' 'y Ima go' pictwers o' ba'!" The little boy wailed while Ziva continued to stare straight ahead of her, tears rolling down her cheeks at a steady pace.

Tony walked over to his son, scooping him up and placing kisses to his hair. He had always, naïvely, hoped that he would never ask about the scars on his wife's back. It had to be that day, of all the days in the year, that he would ask.

"They're not pictures, Buddy. They're not pictures." He sat next to Ziva, feeling his heart sink in his chest when he felt Anton cower into him, the same way he had cowered into Ziva the first time he had met the boy. He rocked him gently, soothing his tears and sighed, wondering where to start the story. "A long time ago, a lot of very bad things happened, and Ima got hurt." He looked down at his hands. "It was my fault."

"Why?" Anton stared at his father, not believing that this man, the one who loved his Ima more than life itself, could ever be the one to cause her harm. Ziva too was now looking at Tony curiously. She had never actually heard him talk of it, tell his side of the story.

"Because I made some very bad mistakes and when Ima had to go away I couldn't protect her like I had promised I always would." He had his chin rested on Anton's shoulder and his eyes were fixed to his hands as they picked at the cotton of the bed sheets.

Ziva's breaths had calmed slightly and her muscles had relaxed, yet when she spoke her voice still showed how rattled she was. "I never blamed you."

"Maybe you should have." His jaw tensed and he blinked away tears. "Come on, you. We need to get you ready for nursery." He stood up, picking Anton up and slinging him over his shoulder. He carried him through to the bathroom and sat him on the toilet, wetting a facecloth and handing it over. Anton clumsily scrubbed his face, tilting his head up for his father to dry it with the soft towel that he held. He reached up and pulled Tony's hands down, looking at the serious expression that covered the usually jovial face.

"Did you mean to hurt Ima, or was it accident?"

"Daddy did not hurt me. It was not his fault, and he should never have blamed himself. What happened would have happened whether Daddy made the choices that he did or he did not." Ziva said from the doorway, a robe wrapped tightly around her.

"If I hadn't…"

"Tony, I would have been recalled if I had not gone back anyway. I spoke with Hadar before he died, and he said that my father had been thinking of recalling me anyway. That had been one of Michael's jobs, to convince me that I would be happier with him, in Israel. And then, even if I had not been to Somalia, I would have been sent on some other mission that had no hope of succeeding, and I would have died in some hellhole as my father intended." Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"Ziva…"

"You saved me, Tony. That is all that matters." Anton had been silent throughout the exchange, staring wide-eyed at his parents and focusing on their words. Ziva crouched down in front of him and smiled sadly. "Sorry that I scared you, Baby. I would never mean to scare you."

"You hurt my arm." He held up the offending limb, showing the pale pink grip mark. The tears that she had been holding back broke through her barriers and formed streams down her cheeks as she pressed a kiss to his wrist.

"I am so sorry, Baby. I never meant to."

Anton sniffed and used one of his hands, still slightly chubby with baby-fat, to wipe away her tears. "That's okay, Ima. I know."

* * *

He watched as she wriggled on her play mat, his face inches from hers. It was his new favourite hobby, watching his baby sister. She was his favourite toy. She was fascinating. She made the funniest of noises and wrinkled her nose a lot. And her arms, and legs; they flailed everywhere, uncoordinated and uncontrollable. He crawled over and pressed a kiss to her forehead, like he had seen his father do, and then lay down next to her, closing his eyes for a moment. A short nap would not bother anyone.

* * *

Ziva pinched the bridge of her nose as Anton tore past her, the tails of his little black suit jacket flaring out. "Name's Bond, James Bond." He collided with his father's legs, falling to the ground laughing.

"Why on Earth did you say he could be James Bond for Halloween?"

"Because he's adorable, aren't you Bud?"

"Yep. I adowable." He grinned up at them.

"Yeah you are, now, have you got your pillowcase?"

"Nuh-uh." He shook his head and ran off.

Tony sighed with a grin and shook his head. "Makes you want another one, doesn't it?"

Ziva simply rolled her eyes and shook her head. "We have discussed this, Tony. Aviva is only a couple of months old, Anton is a handful, another child would…" It had only been in the past week that Tony had been dropping mostly unsubtle hints as to having another child. It was not that she was completely against the idea of having another child, but she was happy – their family was…stable, comfortable, and she was hesitant to upset the balance that they had only just achieved. Anton hurtled into her and she picked him up, kissing his cheek. "We can talk about it later, but talking does not mean deciding." She smiled at him as she placed their son down and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and placing her head on his chest.

"Okay." He nodded, breathing in the scent of her hair. She tilted her face up to his and raised her eyebrows. "What? It smells nice."

She wrinkled her nose. "It smells of baby sick."

"Not this bit. This bit smells of vanilla."

She sighed and shook her head. "Well, it needs washing. Do you think there is time before Palmer gets here for me to have a shower?"

"You can have a shower with Palmer in the house. He's less creepy than he used to be."

"It is not so much that as you will be leaving with him once he arrives with Victoria, and I do not want to leave Aviva alone whilst I am in the shower."

"Oh, right." He checked his watch. "Yeah, you've probably got enough time if you're quick." His arms tightened around her. "But I think you're gonna stay right here, in my arms."

"Oh, you do, do you?" She smirked, pressing her lips to his. Her left hand ran through his hair, tugging at the short strands. His hands started roaming, his grip on her loosening slightly, and she used the opportunity to slip from his grasp.

Left startled by the sudden loss of her body against his, he gaped, stuttering as she winked at him and flicked him a wave as she sauntered up the stairs. "Hey, that's not fair!"

She leant over the glass bannister and chuckled, humour twinkling in her eyes. "Who said anything about fair, Tony?"

"Flirt." He grumbled, rolling his eyes as she blew him a kiss.

"You love it really." He huffed as she sniggered and ran up the stairs.

Anton ran through again, making the sound of a car engine with his lips, clearly already having enough energy _before_ all of the candies that he and Victoria would no doubt be collecting later, stopping when he reached his father. "Stay away from women, Buddy. They're trouble." The boy frowned at him and shrugged before running off again, this time humming the 007 theme.

* * *

The door swung open and Jimmy grinned in his red cape and devil horns. "Hi!"

"Good evening, Jimmy."

"Hullo Ziva." Victoria waved from where she stood by her father's leg.

"Well, who is this beautiful princess?"

"Victoria, silly! You can't tell?" She looked down at her purple dress then back up at the woman.

"So it is." She smiled and turned around. "Anton, Victoria is here!"

"'Toria!" He hurtled towards them and Ziva stopped him by picking him up, his little legs still running through the air.

"You need to calm down, Little Man." She kissed his nose and positioned him on her hip. "Tony is just changing Aviva, he will be down in a few minutes. Come in whilst you are waiting." She waved them in, leading them towards the couches in the living area. "Anton, can you put your shoes on for me, and get your pillowcase please?"

"Uh-hu." He nodded, squirming out of her arms and starting to run.

"Walk, please, Baby." He immediately slowed his pace down until he rounded the corner, at which point he started running again.

"Um, I heard your Ima. She told you to walk, didn't she?" Tony looked at him expectantly from the top of the stairs and the little boy nodded, hanging his head and opening the shoe cupboard, pulling out his black Nikes, the ones he usually wore if he went with Ziva running, and taking them through to his mother. Ziva smiled as he crawled onto her lap and she told him which shoe went on which foot, helping him with the Velcro. "So, you know what to do when somebody knocks on the door?"

"Give out teeth decaying treats?"

"Exactly." Tony flashed a grin as Anton jumped up and he handed Viva over to her. "You're gonna be okay?"

"Tony, I have lived through many Halloweens before this one." He shrugged and kissed her cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Love you three." Their son kissed his mother's cheek before running towards the door. "Come on, Daddy. Hurry up."

* * *

"No, you can have one tomorrow. Now is sleep time."

"Jus' one, Ima," Anton said through a yawn, "then sleep."

"No, you have already brushed your teeth. And you will not go to sleep if you have any more sugar than your daddy has already allowed you."

"Hey, it was one lollipop. That is not that much sugar."

"A whole lollipop full of sugar." She looked up at her husband, eyebrows raised.

"You have that scary look in your eye, so I'm gonna stop arguing."

"Good idea, Tony." She nodded. "Laila tov, Baby."

"Laila tov, Ima. G'night, Daddy."

"Night, Buddy. Sleep tight." Tony ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead. Both parents stood and walked out of the room, flicking the light out as they left. Ziva felt Tony's arms snaking around her waist, securing her to him and halting her progress towards the stairs. She chuckled lowly as he pressed kisses down the side of her neck, letting her eyes flutter closed as she leant back into his body. "Come on, let's go swimming."

"Tony, it is late."

"And?"

She laughed and shook her head. "You are as bad as your son. And I have no reason to decline." Ziva twisted in his arms and toyed with the buttons on his shirt.

"Of course you don't." He grinned, making her gasp as he lifted her up, pulling her legs around his waist and pressing his lips to hers. As he tangled one of his hands in her hair she pulled away, breaking the kiss. "Ziva…" He whined, pouting.

As she regained her breath, the moved away, towards their bedroom. "Baby monitor."

"Ah. Good plan." He nodded, watching her disappear into the bedroom momentarily. When she returned she had lost the sweater and jeans she had been wearing all day and waltzed past him in just her underwear.

Pausing on the stairs, she turned to face him, smiling coyly. "Well, are you coming?"

* * *

Cool fingers skimmed up and down her spine as she tangled and untangled her hand with his, watching how they fit and unfit together. "Do you really want another baby, Tony?" Her voice was no more than a whisper, but as they lay on the tiled floor next to the pool, his body acting as a mattress, the words echoed, bouncing off of the water and easily sounding louder than they were. His hand stilled, hesitating.

"Yeah. But if you don't, then…"

"I never said I never want another child, Tony, I just said that I do not think that now it the right time." She tilted her head to look at him, her lips dragging across the skin of his chest.

"When is the right time gonna be?" His voice revealed the impatience that he felt. "Neither of us are exactly getting younger."

"Well, you might not be, but I-"

"I'm being serious, Ziva."

"And I am trying to not be serious. I understand where you are coming from, Tony, but-"

"Wait. Can I explain something?" He did not give her time to answer. "I grew up in an empty, silent house. Nobody to talk to, nobody to play with. I always said that if I were to ever get married, have kids, then I would want them to have company, someone to run around with, make loads of noise with and pretend to be princesses and pirates and doctors and builders with."

"We have two children, why do you think we need more?" She was hoping that she could focus the attention on him so much that he would not direct any questions to her over why she was not warming to the idea so much.

"Anton will be off to school soon, and then who's Viva gonna have?"

"She will still have Anton, and soon enough she will be going to school too." She shrugged. "Besides, say we, hypothetically, have another child, when Aviva goes to school, do I have to have another baby, a forth, and then a fifth? Where does it end, Tony?"

"You know that's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean."

"I mean that I think one more would be nice…" He paused and turned his face away from her, watching the water cast gentle reflections around the room. "I guess I sort of want to make up for the time I missed."

"Tony." Using a feather-light touch she tilted his face back to hers, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "Nothing either of us do can ever bring that time back. Having another child will not give you what you missed. You know that."

"I know, but…"

"You think that another child will mean that you have been there for a higher percentage of my pregnancies, to help out with a higher percentage of your children's infancies. It will get you proportionally more time than you have now."

"Two out of three's better than one out of two." He smiled slightly before snorting. "Look at us, working out whether to have another child through maths. It's the sort of thing McStats would do." As his hands made their way to her hips, drawing patterns on the soft skin there, his forehead wrinkled into a frown. "Why don't you want more children?"

"I never said I-"

He cut her off. "It was close enough. Why?"

It was her turn to look away, this time sitting up so she was straddling his lower abdomen, focusing her gaze on her hands as she ran her fingers through his chest hair. All of a sudden she stood up and moved over to the edge of the pool. Her toes wrapped around the ledge for a moment before she stepped forwards, submerging herself in the clear water. Tony scrambled over to stare at her as she lingered, sitting cross-legged on the black tiles at the bottom of the pool. She released the breath that she had been holding and the bubbles obscured his vision as she pushed off the smooth tiles, continuing to face away from him when she surfaced. "You remember why I could not call Aviva Tali?"

He nodded, knowing that she could not see him. "Because you couldn't live with the fear that she would come to the same fate."

"I grew up with two siblings, Tony. An older brother and a younger sister." He could not tell if the quivering in her shoulders was from her treading water or from the tears that he could hear in her voice or both.

"You don't want history to repeat itself." Realisation flooded his voice and he sighed softly. "Then we have two more babies, or three. We just don't stop until we know that there is no such thing as the curse you suppose you carry." He slipped into the water silently, placing his chin on her shoulder and covering her stomach with one of his hands as they trod water together.

"I never said I was cursed."

"But you think it, don't you?" She opened her mouth, about to deny his accusation, when he pressed his lips to her neck briefly and then moved his mouth to her ear. "You talk in your sleep. And you are terrible at lying."

"I have no living relatives, Tony. My brother was a terrorist, my sister was killed by a terrorist, my mother killed herself after years of loving a man who did not love her back, and my father...either I am cursed or I did something very wrong in a past life."

"Okay then, explain Anton. Explain Aviva. Explain us." He challenged.

"You." She stated quietly. "You are the explanation."

"Ziva…"

"It is true. For all the evil in the world, your good could counteract it."

He laughed. "If that were true then I would be out of a job."

"Well, we cannot be having that, children are expensive." She muttered.

"True. Wait, does that mean-?"

She sighed, turning to face him. Placing her hand on his shoulders, she pulled herself closer, pressing her body to his. "It means that we can think about it, Tony. It does not mean that we will necessarily be trying for a baby, but that we will not be surprised if, in a couple of years it turns out we will be having another little DiNozzo."

"A couple of years?" He asked sceptically.

"Well, we do not know how long it will take to conceive." She shrugged.

"Because that approach really worked the last two times." He said sarcastically, cupping the back of her head with his hand. "I mean, I am certain that is what you said with Aviva, and that didn't happen, and I mean, Anton was just two days in a farmhouse. Realistically speaking we really should be expecting a little baby in nine months."

She narrowed her eyes. "Keep saying things like that and it will be a minimum of ten months. Or not at all."

"Done." He grinned, pulling her, if possible, tighter to himself. "So, can we start not-trying now?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed, dropping her head to his shoulder as she tangled her legs with his. "You are impossible."

* * *

"They really are in love, aren't they?" Abby smiled as she and Tim stood by the dining table of Gibbs house, watching Tony and Ziva. They were sat on the sofa, Ziva's legs crossing over his, her head on his shoulder and their hands clasped together as they murmured quietly between themselves. Aviva lay on a blanket on the floor by Tony's feet, chewing on the foot of her babygrow.

"It all turned out alright in the end." McGee agreed. He looked over to where Gibbs and Ducky sat at the other end of the table with Anton between them, drawing out more and more plans for the elaborate tree house.

It was just the team as it had been, half a decade before, minus Jimmy and Breena. They were staying with Breena's family for the holidays, as Ellie was with her family, and Delilah was working the late shift on Christmas Eve and would not be joining the group for their gathering around Gibbs' house. "I told you it would, didn't I?" She grinned.

"Yes, you did." He pressed a kiss to her cheek.

She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. "Do you remember all the times we sat in my lab, gossiping about them, trying to figure out if they were or weren't?"

"Of course. That was eight years of my life. And, clearly, they did not need our help after all. They managed to figure it all out on their own."

"Y'know, I always thought they would be more…passionate." She frowned.

Tim sniggered and shook his head. "You think they aren't passionate?"

"They're just sat there, not kissing, nothing rated higher than PG, I mean…"

" Just because they are not all over each other whilst sat on Gibbs sofa does not mean that they are not passionate. Come on, Abs, can you really imagine that behind closed doors they are anything other than passionate? They're Tony and Ziva. They know how to be both passionate and conservative."

Abby shrugged, not certain whether he had managed to convince her or not as she continued to watch the couple on the couch. Her eyes narrowed when Tony placed his hand on Ziva's stomach and she covered his hand with her own. "I'm gonna get a refill. Do you want some?"

"Just what we need, more alcohol," McGee said sarcastically but followed her through to the kitchen. "Abby, I only need one glass."

"The other two are not for us." She said, handing him two and taking two herself as she walked over to the sofa, sitting next to Tony and Ziva. "Eggnog?"

"I am fine, thank you." Ziva smiled. "Of all your American traditions, this is the one I grasp least – raw egg and alcohol."

"There's not that much alcohol in it." Abby protested, continuing to hold the glass out to her friend.

"I can smell the alcohol, Abby. I am not drinking tonight." The Goth shot McGee a look, one that took a moment for him to process, before shrugging and bouncing up, taking the spare glasses over to Ducky and Gibbs. "What was that about?"

"I have no idea." Tony shrugged, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"McGee, did you see that?" Abby hissed at McGee as they walked out of the earshot of everybody else.

"What?"

"Ziva."

"Yeah. She's sat right there. I can see her fine."

"No, Timmy. She declined my offer of eggnog."

"Well, she has a point, it is a weird tradition." He frowned, unable to follow Abby's train of thought.

"No, watch." She nodded to their friends.

He shook his head. "What is it, Abby?"

"Look at their hands." Their hands were still entwined on Ziva's stomach. McGee sighed again and shook his head, a clear sign he had no idea what she was on about. "Ziva's pregnant again."

"What?!" Eggnog spluttered out of his mouth, creating a sticky mess down his shirt and attracting the attention of the others. Abby pat him on the back, dragging him over to the sink and dampening some kitchen roll, dabbing the mess with it.

"It makes sense, Ziva drinking only water at dinner, and now with the eggnog and their hands on her belly."

"Abby, she told us earlier that she was driving home. And, that because it's Christmas tomorrow they still had a long night of wrapping gifts and she didn't want to risk any headaches or anything." He explained.

"Then explain the hands."

"They're Gibbs' house, what do you want, for him to grab her boob? Where else are his hands going to go? It's normal, Abby. She's not pregnant. Besides, didn't you say that she said she didn't want any more kids?"

"Didn't Jimmy say that Anton made a comment about a new baby when they were trick-or-treating on Halloween?" She challenged, eyebrows raised.

"Abby, Anton is three – he is not a reliable source. Neither is Jimmy, for that matter."

She huffed and pouted. "Well, I am going to ask her." She said indignantly before storming off. He watched, rather bewildered, as she sat down next to them and asked – rather bluntly if he took their expressions as good tells – her intended question.

This time it was both Ziva and Tony's turn to splutter their drinks, soaking Ziva's blouse with red wine and water. If the blouse had not already been a burgundy colour, McGee was certain that Abby would not be sat where she was but lying in her own pool of red liquid. As it was, Ziva was looking murderous – and he was uncertain whether it was in reaction to the question or the stain. She stood up and walked towards him, beginning to unbutton her shirt. "McGee, if you value your life and your eyeballs I recommend turning around now."

"Uh…yeah." He closed his eyes – and his mouth – and turned to face away from her as she stood by the sink, where he had been whilst Abby removed the vast majority of the stickiness of eggnog from his shirt. The house fell silent, except for the running of the tap, as everyone kept their eyes averted. "Gibbs, do you have vinegar?"

"In the cupboard, third from the left."

"Thank you."

"Jesus, Abby, you could have eased into that question." Tony groaned, rubbing his forehead.

"I didn't know you were going to react like that!"

"We'll how did you think we'd react? 'Yes, Abs, how did you guess?'" He snapped, exhaling heavily as her face took on a glum, sullen expression. "Sorry, that was harsh."

"I shouldn't have asked. I just, I had this gut feeling, y'know, and I didn't know you'd react so…well…like you did."

"Yeah, well…wait, you had a gut feeling?" They all knew how much they each trusted the direction of guts in their little family. He looked up and Ziva met his eyes from across the kitchen, brown eyes staring widely at green ones. His voice was strangled when he spoke. "Hey, does anyone know if drug stores stay open on Christmas?"

 **Did anybody else notice in You Better Watch Out, when Senior turned up in the bullpen and he asked Ziva whether Tony had room that her reply sounded very…forced, sort of like a lie and Tony simply looked down, not actually confirming that it was true? Maybe it is just me making it up, but… everybody else seemed to expect another answer from them as well.**

 **I am not overly happy with how this turned out really, but it has been bugging me for long enough, and this is the best version. I cut out all of the bits with Bishop because I simply do not know enough about her to write her, and I really struggle to empathise with her.**

 **I feel that the end, though, that little cliff hanger, is where I am going to leave this, because I do not think I will be able to spend another seven months writing one chapter, and this has been a real pain to write. If I am ever suddenly struck with a bolt of inspiration, I will possibly either add another chapter or write a sequel, but I think, for now, this is the end…**

 **Until the next time…**


End file.
